Charmed Progeny
by Melinda Faith Halliwell
Summary: The charmed ones have retired and it is now up to their children to fight the forces of evil. With a new source and secretes from the past threatening to be exposed, the next generation of Halliwell witches have their work cut out for them.
1. All Halliwells Eve

Disclaimer: I Don't Own Charmed

Hey guys! Sorry I keep taking this story down only to repost it. I am a perfectionist and it just was not right, I had no idea where I was going with it but now I do! It was also in need of a beta read. Anyways this chapter is pretty much the same and the next few will prob be too but then I promise new stuff ASAP! It will be worth it!

* * *

**All Halliwells Eve **

The air was cool and crisp and the moon shown full in the sky. The woods were dark but there was an opening where the people of Salem had gathered with their torches, illuminating the night. The crowd split to allow for a carriage to ride up to the center of the opening. The carriage stopped and a man in a black hooded robe walked to the back and pulled a young woman out of the cage. The man escorted the woman to the pyre and tied her to a stake. Another man emerged from the crowd, he had long dark hair as black as a raven and his piercing blue eyes burnt with hatred and cruelty.

"Come to enjoy your handy work Jonathan?" The young women, asks with hatred in her voice but never once did she loose her composure.

"This is your last chance Melinda Warren, tell me where the stone is and you may yet escape the pyre's flame"

"I will tell you nothing. You may kill me, but you cannot kill my kind. I vow that with each generation of Warren witches will grow stronger, culminating in the arrival of three sisters. These three sisters will be the most powerful witches the world has ever known. They will destroy all kinds of evil and shall be called the Charmed Ones." She yells and spits blood so that it hits where the black haired man stood.

"Have it your way." He replied softly so only Melinda could hear. Then he turned from her toward the crowd. "Let this be a lesson to all of those who stray from the path of good and righteousness." The man nodded to the hooded guard and he began to light the pyre. "Melinda Warren you have been found guilty of committing the darkest art, witchcraft. For this affront against God, I hereby condemn you to burn in the fires of Hell of which you so eagerly seek communion."

The flames began to grow and soon they engulfed Melinda and she was gone forever.

* * *

Melinda Halliwell shot up from her bed in a cold sweet, her heart was racing and her breath was hard and heavy and her head was pounding. She turned to look at the clock, which told her it was 9:15.

"Shit" She muttered to herself, grabbing her robe and heading for the door.

"Why didn't you wake me?" She complained as she enters the kitchen of the apartment she shared with her best friend Alice. The two had been inseparable since birth. Alice was the daughter of Billie Jenkins, making her a witch just like Melinda. The two had even trained together and went to magic school together and now attended College together. If it weren't for the fact that Alice had blond hair and Melinda had brown, people might have even thought the two were sisters, maybe even twins.

"Sorry, I figured you could use the rest." Alice defended, handing Melinda a cup of coffee, which she made a face at.

"You don't want coffee?" Alice said shocked. "Well that's a first."

"I have this awful headache, the coffee will probably just make it worse." Melinda groaned holding her head.

"You've been getting a lot of headaches lately, maybe you should go see a doctor or something."

"I don't know, I haven't been sleeping very well lately, I keep having these awful dreams, maybe that is what is causing it." Melinda confessed.

"Really? What are the dreams about?" Alice asked only half interested.

"Melinda Warren."

"What about Melinda Warren?" Alice asked more intrigued then before.

"Lately they have been about her being burnt at the stake." Melinda explained.

"Freaky, maybe you should tell your parents or brothers about this." Alice suggested. For normal people dreams where merely strange thoughts that ran through ones head while sleeping, but for witches, especially Halliwells, they could be much more important.

"I'm sure its nothing, besides they all have enough to worry about without my strange dreams." Melinda said. She loved her family but she didn't want to burden them with something that was most likely nothing.

"Well you better figure out something, don't want to look unrested for your birthday party tonight" Alice reminded her.

"God, I completely forgot that was today." Melinda confessed a little embarrassed she had forgotten about her own birthday.

"How could you have forgotten your own birthday? You're 21 now. That's a big birthday." Alice said.

"Damn I'm old." Melinda sighed. Then she looked at the clock to see that it was already 9:23. "Shoot, I'm going to be late for class." She said standing up and grabbing her backpack before heading towards the door. "I'll see you later." She waved and ran off to class.

"I wonder how long it will take her to realizes she left the house in her pajamas?" Alice laughed to herself as she continued to eat her breakfast.

* * *

Wyatt had been pacing the apartment he shared with his girlfriend Gwen, for the last twenty minutes.

"Come on man, just do it." He mumbled to himself in the mirror. "You love her and you want to be with her forever. Its not that hard you just say 'Gwen will you marry me?"

"Am I interrupting something?"

Wyatt jumped a little at the sound of his younger brothers voice.

"God, you scared me. I didn't even here you come in. How long have you been here anyway?" Wyatt asked, concern present in his voice.

"Don't worry your secrets safe with me." Chris smirked. "Though I don't know how big of a secret it really is. Mel, Hank and I have a bet going on how long it's going to take you. If you do it with in the next three days then I win."

"Well I am glad you are all enjoying my suffering." Wyatt said angry with his siblings and cousin that they would do something like this, not that it surprised him.

"Suffering? You're asking your girlfriend of three years to marry you, its not Chinese water torture."

"It might as well be. I mean what if she says no? And how am I supposed to go about it anyways? Its not something that just comes up in everyday conversation."

"Just relax will you. She's not going to say no, for whatever reason she has stayed with you this long. I mean I think she is crazy but if she was going bolt she would have done so by now so just calm down okay?"

"What are you doing here anyways? Don't you have work and your own apartment?" Wyatt asked attempting to change the subject.

"Is it wrong to want to come and hang out with my brother? Besides I got the day off from work." Chris said as he sat down of the couch and flipped on the TV.

"Strange day to have off. Don't most of the weird crimes happen on Halloween?" Wyatt asked sitting down next to his brother.

"Yes, but I told them it was my sister's birthday and I had to help set up for her party so they let me off for the day." Chris explained. Chris had been working as a detective under the supervision of Daryl for two years now. He loved the job but it didn't have the most flexible hours, though with Daryl as chief it was a little easier to work around his "family emergencies".

"Oh crap, that's tonight isn't it?"

"Don't tell my you forgot your own sisters 21st birthday?"

"Well I have been a little preoccupied with the whole proposal thing." Wyatt defended.

"Ya, well maybe you should just do it already and then you wont have to be preoccupied with it." Chris suggested a little harsher then necessary.

"Well I can't do it today, it's Melinda's birthday and that wouldn't be fair."

"Oh that's such bull, Mel loves you and Gwen she would be thrilled if you two got engaged on her birthday."

"No, I should probably just wait till next week." Wyatt said half to Chris, half to himself.

"You could always just do it tomorrow." Chris suggested

"You just want me to do it now so you'll win the bet, don't you?" Wyatt said, calling his brother out.

"Come on Wyatt, I have $200 ridding on this." Chris pleaded.

Wyatt just ignored him and proceeded to flip through the channels.

* * *

"Hi. I'd like a large caramel macchiato with an extra shot of espresso and whip cream, please." Melinda said to the coffee cart worker. She had already been to her early morning photography class and she had two more classes to go before she was done and since she had skipped her usual morning coffee she was in desperate need of caffeine.

"Coming right up"

Melinda fumbled through her bag and noticed in her haste this morning she had forgot to bring her wallet and only had a few dollars on her. "Wait, how much is that?"

"Four ninety five." The man replied.

Melinda fumbled through her bag to see she didn't have that much. "Okay, better drop the extra shot, what does that make it?"

"Four twenty."

"Hmm, better make it a small, how much is that?"

"Three fifty."

"What if I told you it was my birthday, what then?"

"I could put a candle on top." The man shrugged.

"Really?" Melinda asked surprised they would have candles.

"No." The man replied, he was beginning to get annoyed.

"Need some money?" Melinda heard a familiar voice behind her. "I'll take a small coffee and put the lady's on my tab too."

"Caleb, what are you doing here?" Melinda asked surprised to see her eldest brothers best friend at her college.

"Here's your coffee." The man said handing the two cups to Melinda and Caleb.

"Thank you." Melinda said rather insincerely as the two moved away from the coffee cart.

"I came to see you actually." Caleb confessed. Melinda had always thought Caleb to be extremely attractive. He was tall yet built, though not overly just the right amount Melinda thought. He had light brown hair like his father, Derek's, and the most magnificent Green eyes Melinda had ever seen.

"Really?" Melinda asked a little shocked.

"Well it is your birthday, isn't it?"

"Ya, but aren't you coming to P3 tonight for my birthday?" Melinda asked, still confused.

"Yes, but tonight I can't do this." Caleb said and pulled Melinda into a corridor and began to kiss her. The two kissed passionately for almost two minutes before a group of students walked by and the two pulled away slightly embarrassed.

"No, I suppose you couldn't do that tonight." Melinda sighed. She had been seeing Caleb now for almost three months now but she was too afraid to tell her family for fear that Wyatt would go berserk over the fact that his best friend and his little sister were together.

"We are going to have to tell them eventually you know." Caleb said, he didn't like keeping their relationship a secret but he also liked the idea of being alive and if Wyatt knew chances are he would kill him.

"He would never kill you, maim you maybe but not kill." Melinda replied as an answer to Caleb's unspoken fears.

"What?" Caleb asked confused

"Wyatt, if he found out he would probably just beat you up real bad he wouldn't kill you." Melinda said taking another sip of her coffee.

Caleb stood there confused as to how Melinda knew what he had been thinking.

"What?" Melinda asked seeing the confusion written on Caleb's face. "I was only kidding I'm sure he wouldn't hurt you."

"I never said he would." Caleb said eyeing Melinda.

Before Melinda could respond her headache came back, only this time the pain felt a million times worse. She grabbed her head and squeezed her eyes shut but the pain only intensified.

Caleb saw the pain on his girlfriend's face and insistently became concerned. "Mel are you ok?" He asked

"Ya I just have a headache." Melinda lied not wanting to show him how much pain she was actually in.

"It doesn't seem like just a headache." Caleb said becoming more worried by the second. "Mel you look really sick. Maybe I should take you home."

"No really I'm fine I just…" but before she could finish her sentence, her body collapsed to the floor and everything around her went black.

* * *

In the underworld a cloaked figure sat upon a high thrown. Surrounding him on every side were demons standing at attention ready to give their lives for the figure. Before the figure stood another demon. He was not as built as the others; in fact he was rather skinny and short. He cowered before the figure and in his hands he held a piece of parchment that looked to be a few hundred years old.

"Read it again so we can be sure." The figure yelled to the demon

"Of course my liege. The prophecy states that 'On the eve of her 21st year when the moon shows full and the dead may walk among the living, a warren witch will receive the gift to find the stone.' We believe we have located the girl."

"And you are certain it is the right one?" The figure asked leaning forward in his thrown.

"Yes my liege." The demon said shaking a little

"Good because if you're wrong, her head wont be the only one to roll."

* * *

Piper and Leo were at P3 setting up for their only daughters 21st birthday party. The couple had been hanging streamers and blowing up balloons for the better part of an hour now and the place still was not fully decorated. They had hoped to get some help from the rest of the family with the decorations but everyone seemed to be too busy with other things. The two did not mind that much though. They were excited to be throwing a party for their daughter. It had been their idea after all. Melinda was not fond of being the center of attention but her parents, mostly Piper, thought it would be fun and with 21 being such a big birthday and them owning a club, it seemed to make sense.

"Honey will you pass me those streamers?" Piper asked pointing to some yellow and pink streamers sitting on the bar.

Leo walked over and handed his wife, who was standing on a latter putting the decorations up on the banisters, the streamers. "Can you believe our little girl is 21?"

"Ugh, don't remind me." Piper joked, putting up the last of the streamers. Satisfied with her work she climbed off the latter to join her husband on the ground. "All our babies are grown."

Leo smiled at his wife and pulled her into a hug. "Maybe Wyatt will pluck up the courage to ask Gwen to marry him and then soon we can have some grandbabies to fawn over"

"It will be nice to have some little ones running around again. All the kids are getting so big. It seems as if over night they all just grew up."

"Excuse me will you stop discussing my future children, I am not even engaged yet." Piper and Leo turned at the familiar sound of their oldest son's voice.

"I am guessing this means you have not asked Gwen yet?" Leo said to his son.

"Nope, but if worse comes to worse I am sure him and his mirror would be very happy together." Chris joked walking in behind his brother who just shot him a dirty look.

"Don't listen to them sweetie, when the time is right you will know" Piper said walking over to comfort her eldest son.

"Thank you mom. Anyways, do you need any help setting up for the party?"

"Ya that would be great." But before Piper could show her sons what still needed to be done, Caleb shimmered in with an unconscious Melinda in his arms.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Piper said with worry in her voice.

"I don't know. One minute we were talking and the next minute she fainted." Caleb explained as he gently placed Melinda on one of the couches in the club.

"Where were you guys? Didn't she have class today?" Wyatt asked, a little suspicious.

"Roman left one of his books at my place so I was going to return it and I ran into her." Caleb lied poorly. Roman was Caleb's half brother. His father Derek had married Eva Nicoli, who was a friend of the Charmed ones and also a Gypsy. The couple had two children together, Roman who was 21 and one of Melinda and Alice's best friends and Arianna who was 18, the same age as Paige's twin daughters and Phoebe's second daughter.

Wyatt nodded, excepting his best friends answer though he was still suspicious.

"Melinda, sweetie, wake up." Piper said gently as she shook her daughter awake.

Melinda's eyes began to flutter open and surveyed their surroundings before turning their full attention on the five people standing around. "What happened? Where am I?" Melinda said weakly.

"You fainted" Piper informed her. "Do you remember anything?"

"I was talking to Caleb and then my head started to hurt and then everything just went black." Melinda recounted.

"Do you think it's magical or medical?" Piper asked turning to her Husband and eldest son who were both Doctors and whitelighters.

"Seems medical to me." Wyatt answered kneeling down next to his sister to check her pulse and other vital signs. "You were probably just dehydrated, it's relatively hot for this time of year."

"It didn't seem like dehydration. Before she collapsed she started screaming, drew a big crowd of on lookers." Caleb told Wyatt.

"Well how are you feeling now?" Wyatt asked turning to his sister

"Fine. A little groggy but other wise fine. I am sure it was nothing, probably just dehydration like you said." Melinda responded as she sat up trying to prove she was okay.

"Either way we should probably take you in to get looked at." Leo chimed in concerned that whatever this was, was bigger then just dehydration. He had believed it was just medical until Caleb had mentioned the screaming, now he was not so sure.

"Dad, I am fine this has nothing to do with magic." Melinda told her father.

"I never said it did." Leo said looking confused by his daughters comment.

"That, that happened before too." Caleb exclaimed.

"What happened?" Chris asked, becoming more and more confused with the whole situation.

"She made a comment about something we had not been discussing. Almost as if she was answering a thought I had, like she had heard what I was thinking and responded." Caleb explained

"You know I am sitting right here, you don't have to talk like I am not in the room" Melinda said a little annoyed.

"That's weird." Leo commented

"What's weird?" Piper asked, the concern growing in her voice.

"What compelled you to tell me this had nothing to do with magic? I never said it did, but I was thinking it." Leo asked his daughter, completely ignoring his wife.

"I don't know it just came out. Like it was all just part of the conversation." Melinda said.

"What happened right before you fainted?" Leo asked

"Like I said, I was talking to Caleb and then my head started to hurt really bad and I blacked out." Melinda told her father.

"And have you been having a lot of these headaches lately?"

"Ya how did you know?" Melinda asked, surprised that her father knew about her headaches.

"I don't think this is medical."

* * *

Alice stood outside her Art History class waiting for Melinda to arrive. The two always met up at this time to walk home together but Melinda was now over a half hour late. Alice pulled out her phone and dialed Melinda's number. It went straight to voice mail. Usually this would have sent up red flags in Alice's mind but Melinda had been so forgetful and all over the place lately and it was her birthday after all.

"Hey its me. Just calling to see where you are. I think I am going to head home but call me when you get this." Alice finished her message and clicked her phone off before returning it to her bag. She began to head for home when she heard a familiar voice behind her calling out her name. She turned to see it was Roman.

"Hey Roman. What's up?"

"Oh thank god I caught you. My brother just called, Melinda fainted. I was supposed to find you to let you know so you would not wait around for her."

"Well thanks I have been waiting here for 30 minutes so you did a really great job at that." Alice said sarcastically. "Is she okay?"

"Ya, I think so. Caleb said Wyatt just thinks she was dehydrated though he did not sound very convincing on the phone." Roman told her. "You want me to walk home with you?"

"I am capable of walking myself. I don't think any demons will attack in broad daylight."

"I know, I just thought you might like the company since Melinda is not here."

"Oh." Alice felt guilty now for having been so defensive. It seemed like everyone was always trying to protect her and her brain had turned to autopilot when it came to comments like that. "Sure Roman. That would nice."

The two friends began to head for the apartment that Alice and Melinda shared just off campus. Alice and Roman had been friends practically their entire lives. Their families knew each other even before they were born, thanks to the Halliwells. At Magic School, Alice, Roman, and Melinda had been inseparable. People used to call them the three musketeers because they were always together. When they got to college, Melinda and Alice decided to room together and Roman lived with Henry Jr., which often made Roman feel left out but the three were still freakishly close.

"So do you have a date for tonight?" Alice asked as they walked.

"Oh, I did not realize this was a date bringing kind of thing." Roman lied. He had someone in mind to ask but he was worried she would turn him down.

"Ya me either. You would think in a large campus filled with boys I would be able to find at least one decent one." Alice complained

"I'm decent." Roman joked

"Ya but you're my friend we can't date."

"You make it sound like it would be incestuous or something if we did." Roman said sounding a little offended.

"Well it kind of is. You are like a brother to me." Alice told him as the two entered the apartment building.

"I suppose you are right." Roman sighed. "But if you are dateless tonight and I am dateless tonight maybe we could go together, as friends."

"Ya that sounds good. I think I will just head upstairs and get ready and then head over early to make sure Melinda is okay. If you come over at around 5 I can orb us both over." Alice offered. Alice was part witch on her mother's side and part whitelighters on her father's side. Her father, Jonathan David Williams, or J.D. had met her mother when her and the Charmed Ones saved him from being trapped inside a photograph by a demon named Vaklav. The two hit it off but J.D. died to save Paige's father Sam and became a whitelighters. The two met up again a few months later at magic school and the rest is history. They got married and had Alice and had been together ever since.

"Okay, sounds great. I will see you then." Roman smiled at his friend before leaving to head to his own apartment. As he left the building he looked back at his friend who was already getting into the elevator. He smiled to himself "Guess I get to go with who I wanted after all."

* * *

"Hurry up girls. We are already late." Paige called up to her twin daughters Parker and Peyton. "I promised your aunt Piper we would be there at 2 and it is already 2:50."

"Sorry mom, I couldn't find the top I wanted to wear for tonight. Parker stole it and it took me a half hour to finally get it back." Peyton said and she came down the stairs. Peyton and Parker were identical twins but their personalities often clashed. Parker was a bit of a rebel. She loved using her magic when ever she got the chance and was always disappointed when she was not allowed to tag along with her older cousins and brother to go demon hunting. Peyton on the other hand was cleaner cut then her sister. Unlike her sister she was a stickler for following rules and very studious. Though their personalities didn't match, their appearances did. Both girls had dirty blond hair and fair complexions like their mother. They also had matching green eyes and dimples.

"It's not my fault, I thought it was my shirt." Parker defended herself as she descended the stairs behind her sister.

"Well it doesn't matter either way, we are late and we have to leave now." Paige said with an emphasis on the word 'now'. Before Paige could escort her girls out of the house though she turned to hear the familiar sound of someone shimmer in. She quickly turned and without thinking, called for assorted objects lying around to be thrown at the figure. The figure quickly shimmered out to dodge the objects being sent his way and shimmered back in behind Parker. He grabbed her and before Peyton or Paige had a chance to stop him, he shimmered out of the house with Parker.

"Oh my god what just happened?" Peyton asked, terrified by the event she had just witnessed.

Paige couldn't believe how quickly that had all just happened. She couldn't move, she couldn't talk, she just stood there staring at the empty space where Parker had been standing moments before.

* * *

The demon shimmered into a cave in the underworld and released his grip on Parker and threw her to the floor. He then kneeled before a hooded figure who was sitting on a grand thrown.

"My liege, I have brought you the girl." The demon said.

The hooded figure stood up and walked over to where Parker lay. She had been looking around, still in shock about what had just happened. When the hooded figure advanced toward her, she tried to move away from him, but she backed up into one of the walls in the cave and found herself trapped.

"This is the wrong girl." The hooded figure said after examining Parker for a few moments.

"No my liege, I promise you I have brought you the correct girl." The demon said cowering behind the figure.

"Do you think I am stupid?" The figure asked, turning to look at the demon. "I have studied the charmed ones, I know everything about them, including what they look like and I am telling you that this is the wrong girl. She is one of the twins and I asked you to bring me that twice blessed brat's sister. So no it is not the correct girl." The figure let out a scream of anger and sent fire from his hands to turn the demon into ash.

"Incompetent demon, I am surrounded by idiots." The hooded figure mused to himself. He then turned his attentions back to Parker. "Well, well what are we going to do with you? I could kill you." He said laughing a little to himself as Parker struggled to find a way out. "But then again" he said getting close to her face "you would also make excellent bait for the others." He laughed again as Parker got up and attempted to run, he knew there was no way out, she was trapped.

* * *

Leo and Wyatt went to go speak to the elders about Melinda's condition, while Caleb, Piper and Chris stayed at P3 to look after Melinda.

"Honestly guys. I am fine. I don't know what everyone is getting so worked up over. Not every little thing in our lives is connected to magic." Melinda said growing more annoyed by the second. She had been trying to prove to her family and Caleb that she was fine for almost twenty minutes and it was exhausting. Her father was convinced her condition had something to do with magic and had Wyatt orb the two of them, because Leo was a mortal now and could no longer orb, up to see the elders. Her mom had been frantically pacing back and forth in that nervous way she did when something bad happened. Caleb had been next to Melinda the whole time, trying to comfort her and make sure she was okay. Chris found it odd the way he was acting towards her and touching her and speaking to her. He couldn't put his finger on it but something was definitely up with the two of them.

"We just want to make sure that this has nothing to do with magic. Better safe then sorry." Caleb said as he motioned for her to drink more water.

"Why do we even need to check, this has nothing to do with magic. People faint all the time." Melinda said, ignoring Caleb's attempt to have her drink yet another glass of water.

"I don't know. When you fainted, it didn't look like anything I have seen before. You were clutching at your head and screaming bloody murder." Caleb recounted, shivering a little at the memory.

"I had a really bad headache, that's all."

"You said you have been getting these headaches a lot lately?" Chris chimed in.

"Well ya, but its just because I haven't really been sleeping well lately." Melinda explained.

"Why haven't you been sleeping well?" Chris asked

Melinda looked at him and then at Caleb and then at her mother who was still pacing up and down the room. She did not know if it would be a good idea to tell them the real reason for her sleepless nights. She thought her dreams were probably nothing to be concerned about and if she told her family she knew they would overreact and jump to some absurd conclusion about them. Still it didn't seem right to lie to them, when they all seemed so worried about her. "I have been having strange dreams lately." Melinda finally confessed.

"What are they about?" Piper asked, stopping her pacing and walking to her daughter's side.

"Melinda Warren." Melinda said. "Being burnt at the stake." Melinda added; Caleb, Chris and Piper were all staring at her with shocked expressions. She could not tell if they were looking at her that way because they were intrigued by her dreams or because they thought she had lost her mind. "It's probably nothing though." Melinda said trying to appease the tension that was rapidly building in the room. "They are just silly dreams. Probably a sign I am drinking to much caffeine."

Before any of them had a chance to grill Melinda further, Leo and Wyatt returned in a swirl of blue orbs.

"Well what did the elders say?" Piper asked, eager to know what was wrong with her baby.

"Well it looks like you have a new power." Leo told his daughter, though he did not seem excited about it.

"What do you mean? What power?" Melinda asked a little concerned.

"Telepathy." Leo said. "That's why you kept responding to our thoughts, because you can hear them."

Melinda didn't know what to say, she just stared at her father. This didn't make any sense. Telepathy had nothing to do with the powers she already had. Melinda had the power of telekinesis, which she always thought was rather lame and unoriginal. She figured with time her powers would advance but she always thought it would be through her telekinesis powers. Telepathy was nothing like telekinesis it didn't make any sense.

"But I can't hear your thoughts right now. I think I would be able to tell if there were other voices in my head."

"Well it's a relatively new power. It will grow with time. Right now you cannot hear clear thoughts but you can sense them and every now and then one will slip through that you can hear clearly. That is probably what happened before with Caleb and myself." Leo explained to his daughter.

"So soon I will just be able to hear everyone's thoughts all the time?" Melinda asked, her growing panic apparent in her voice.

"Eventually yes." Leo said rather solemnly to his daughter. "But you will learn how to control it. It's going to be alright."

"No it's not going to be alright." Melinda practically screamed, shooting up from the couch. "I can barely handle my own thoughts let alone everyone else's. Just tell the elders to take it back."

"It doesn't work that way Linnie." Wyatt told his sister. He understood his sister's frustration. He too had received powers that he wished he could return.

Before anyone could say anything else, Paige orbed in with Peyton. She was out of breath and there was panic written all over her face.

"Paige what happened?" Piper asked her youngest sister.

"It's Parker." Paige said through deep inhales. "She has been kidnapped."

* * *

Roman arrived at the apartment that Alice and Melinda shared promptly at 5pm. He had cleaned up since this morning. He was now wearing a nice dress shirt with a pair of dark jeans and his hair was clean and still a little damp from his shower. When Alice opened the door, Roman saw that she too had cleaned up for the party. Her hair was now in a half up half down up do and she was wearing a tight sequence dress with tall black heals. Roman couldn't help but stare at her.

"You look great." Roman finally said.

"Thanks. You too." Alice replied ushering him into the apartment. "Just give me two seconds, I have to finish wrapping Melinda's gift."

"So what did you end up getting her?" Roman asked, trying to make some small talk.

"A necklace. I saw her eyeing it in a store a few weeks ago. I hope she likes it." Alice said as she finished wrapping the gift and put a bow on top. "Ok ready to go?"

"Ya." Roman said and he reached out his hand to take Alice's and the two orbed out of the apartment.

They reappeared in P3 in a swirl of blue orbs.

"Huh, everyone must have gone home to get ready." Alice said looking around, noticing the club was completely deserted.

"That's weird. Its almost 5:30 and they haven't finished decorating." Roman said surveying the half hung decorations and the pile of balloons and streamers still sitting in a box on the floor.

"What does that have to do with anything, Roman?" Alice asked, thinking his comment was rather stupid.

"Well the party starts at 7. Don't you think its odd that they all just left with out finishing putting up the decorations?"

Before Alice could answer, the two heard a pair of feet coming down the stairs into the club.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here so early?" It was Gwen, Wyatt's girlfriend. She was a real knock out. She was tall and had legs that seemed to go on for miles and gorgeous red hair that bounced when she walked.

"We were looking for Melinda, but everyone seems to have disappeared." Alice told her.

"That's strange because Wyatt hasn't been answering his phone. Maybe there was a demonic problem." Gwen was a witch and often fought along side her boyfriend and his family. The two had met back in magic school and had been good friends but it wasn't until after college that Wyatt finally got up the nerve to ask her out.

"Do you think we should head over to the Manor and see if they need a hand?" Alice asked.

"I am sure they have it well in hand. If all of them are gone, they probably have more help then they need." Roman said looking around at the half decorated room. "But maybe there is another way we can help them out."

* * *

It did not take long for the family to gather in the attic of the Halliwell Manor. Patricia and Penelope, who were Phoebe's two younger daughters, were not old enough to go demon hunting so they stayed behind with Coop and Henry at magic school for protection. Paige, with the help of Peyton, was frantically flipping through the book trying to identify the demon that had taken her daughter. Melinda and Prue, Phoebe's eldest daughter, were in the corner using one of Parkers shirts to scry for her. Piper and Chris were brewing a vanquishing potion and Wyatt, Caleb, Hank, Leo and Phoebe were strategizing their plan of attack.

"It just seems to strange, why would a demon just shimmer in for no reason and take her?" Melinda mused to her older cousin as the two sat over a map waving a crystal above it with no luck.

"Beats me. Demons are really stupid. Its like they have a death wish or something." Prue said before finally slamming the crystal down in defeat.

"All right the potions are ready. Any leads?" Piper asked.

"Nothing." Paige sighed in defeat. "The demon was so generic looking, he was probably just a lackey for a more powerful demon anyways."

"Well we can't just go traipsing around the underworld." Wyatt said. "Any luck with the Crystal?" Wyatt asked turning to his sister and cousin.

"Nope nothing." Melinda told him sadly. "Maybe if we go down there, you will be able to sense her."

Wyatt shook his head. That would just be stupid. The underworld was huge and he may not even be able to sense her. His whitelighters abilities were often weaker in the underworld. Sensing people through all the endless caves and tunnels and twists and turns was not an easy task if you had no idea where the person even was.

"It's not a stupid idea, it could work." Melinda said angry at her brother for his thoughts.

"Did you just read my mind?" Wyatt asked.

"Ya I think so. Sorry I didn't mean to. I can't control it."

"Maybe we can use your new power to our advantage." Chris mused.

"If Wyatt wont be able to sense her, there is no way I will be able to." Melinda said.

"Maybe not, but a demon kidnapping a charmed daughter will be big news in the underworld." Caleb chimed in, catching on to what Chris was getting at. Caleb spent a lot of time in the underworld. He was half demon and often worked as a double agent to help out the charmed ones. He knew that Parker being taken would have all the demons in the underworld in a buzz.

"So?" Melinda asked still not seeing their point.

"So they will all be thinking about it and maybe one of them will even know who the demon was who took Parker and where she is being help." Chris explained.

"That's not actually a bad idea." Paige said, eager to jump on any lead they had.

"But I don't have control over the thoughts I hear. They just come in randomly. How do we know that I will hear the right one?" Melinda said, finding the flaw in their plan.

"We can't be sure of anything, but at the moment it is all we have to go on and we can't just sit her and wait for something better." Chris said.

Melinda nodded in agreement. She didn't think it was a very good plan but it was the only plan they had and somehow she would just have to make it work.

* * *

The hooded figure had placed Parker into a cage in the corner of the cave. He had taken off his robe and was wearing black from head to toe. Parker couldn't help but notice how young the man was. He seemed to be in his mid 20s and he had long dark hair as black as a raven and his blue eyes burnt with hatred and cruelty.

"You will never get away with this." Parker told the man. "My family will come for me and when they do, they will kill you."

"Is that so?" The man asked. "I have had you down here for over an hour and still I see no rescue party."

"They will come." Parker said half to convince the man and half to convince herself. "What do you want anyways?"

"That is really none of your business."

"I think it is. After all you kidnapped me. I should at least get to know why."

The man walked over to the cage and put his face close to the bars so he was looking right into Parkers eyes. "Your family has something that I want and I intend to take it, even if I have to use force."

"You really think you can take on my entire family and win? God, demons can be so stupid."

"I am not a Demon, I am a Warlock and perhaps I will lose this battle. But it doesn't matter, because I will win the war. Just you wait and see." The man said laughing a little to himself before leaving Parker alone in the cave.

* * *

Caleb shimmered in with Melinda, Wyatt, Chris, Hank and Prue. They could not orb in because it might alert the demons to their presence and they were all dressed in black, as to blend in with the crowd.

"We should probably split up." Wyatt said to the group. "We can cover more ground that way."

They all nodded in agreement.

"Alright, Chris you go with Prue, Hank go with Caleb and I will go with Melinda." Wyatt said, pointing to each individual as he said their name.

"I think I should go with Melinda, I know this place and the demons down here better so I will be able to get her closer so she can hear their thoughts." Caleb suggested.

Wyatt did not seem pleased with this new arrangement but Chris nodded and said "Ya I think that makes sense."

"Fine." Wyatt agreed reluctantly. "Everybody try and find out as much as you can about where Parker is. If you run into any trouble, teleport out and head for the manor. If you find her try calling for us. We may not be able to hear it but it's worth a try."

Everyone nodded in understanding and broke off into their groups to search for Parker.

* * *

"Wonder why Caleb wanted to go with Melinda so badly?" Prue mused as she and Chris walked through the underworld.

"What do you mean? He said it was so he could help her get closer to demons to read their minds."

"I don't know, did you see the way he was looking at her? Like he didn't want to let her out of his site."

"He was just being protective. He is like another brother to us, its what brothers do, be protective of their siblings."

"I hope that's not where those feelings were stemming from because I think that might make them incestuous."

"What on earth or you going on about?" Chris asked his younger cousin.

"I mean that they like each other, as more then just friends." Prue explained.

Chris stopped for a second to think over what his cousin had just said. She was talking crazy. Melinda and Caleb were practically siblings; they could never like each other in that way, it would just be to weird.

* * *

"So tell me the truth, did you really ask to switch partners just so you could help me get closer to the demons?" Melinda asked, suspicious of Caleb's true motives.

"Partly." Caleb said with a dorky smile.

"You know this isn't a laughing matter. Parker could be really hurt." Melinda said, the worry returning to her voice.

"Don't worry we will find her and we would know if she was dead because your family would be able to sense it. She is going to be fine." Caleb said trying to comfort his girlfriend.

"I hope you are right. I wonder what the demon wanted with her anyway?"

"I don't know, but I do know someone who might." Caleb said looking around as if to make sure they were going the right way.

"Where exactly are we going?" Melinda asked noticing Caleb was walking as though he was planning out where the two would end up.

"Like I said, I think I know someone down here who might be able to help."

* * *

"So have you popped the question yet?" Hank asked his eldest cousin as the two walked side by side through one of the tunnels in the underworld.

"No and I don't really think this is an appropriate time to be discussing that."

"Well I think you are right to wait." Hank told his cousin. "Give it a week, I think you will be ready by then."

"You bet I would do it next week didn't you?" Wyatt asked, he knew about the bet but he did not know when Melinda or Hank bet he would do it.

"Guilty." Hank smiled at his cousin but his smile soon faded as the two walked up to a cave at the end of the tunnel.

They could see Parker pacing back and forth in a giant cage while two brute demons stood guard.

"What do we do know?" Hank asked Wyatt who had no idea either.

* * *

Melinda and Caleb emerged into one of the many caves in the underworld. This one was very barren except for a large pool of water that stood in the middle. Next to it was a very beautiful and exotic looking woman. She looked at them as if she had been expecting their arrival.

"Caleb what are we doing here?" Melinda asked, concerned that her boyfriend had led them to what looked like a seer.

"We are looking for the Halliwell witch that was kidnapped." Caleb told the seer, ignoring Melinda's question. "Do you know where she is?

The seer nodded.

"Well you better tell us or you will be sorry." Melinda said trying to sound tough but it didn't really work.

"Do not threaten me witch. I am not afraid of you." The seer said offended by Melinda's words.

"Melinda calm down, she is on our side." Caleb said trying to ease the tension.

"She is a demon, how can she be on our side?" Melinda questioned.

"I am a demon." Caleb reminded her.

"But that's different." Melinda argued but he had a point.

"The girl you seek is very close. But I do not suggest going after her." The seer told Caleb and Melinda.

"Of course we are going to go after her. She is my cousin, I can't just leave her."

"He does not want her, it is a trap. He is using her as bait to lure the one he does want." The seer explained.

"And who exactly does he want?" Melinda asked, fearing the answer.

The seer looked up intently at Melinda, right into her eyes. "He want's you."

* * *

"Can you sense her?" Prue asked her older cousin.

They had been wondering around the underworld for a while now and they hadn't found any leads.

"No, I can't sense any of them."

"Maybe they already found her and they are all back at the Manor." Prue said with hope in her voice.

"Maybe." Chris said though he didn't really believe that was the case.

Just then the two heard several pairs of footsteps heading in their direction.

"Hey, who the hell are you?" one of the advancing demons yelled. "This is our territory, no trespassing."

"Ya." One other the other demons chimed in. "Do you know what we do to trespassers? We kill them."

"Maybe we should get out of here." Prue said to her cousin as the demons got closer and closer.

"I think you are right." And with that Chris and Prue teleported out of the underworld.

* * *

"Me, what would this demon want with me?" Melinda asked, shocked at what the seer had just told her.

"He is not a Demon, he is a Warlock. He plans to take the the vacancy left by the previous source but he is not powerful enough yet. He seeks the ultimate power, a power that would guarantee him the thrown."

"I am still not seeing what this has to do with me." Melinda said, growing impatient with the seer.

"There is a prophecy that states that ''On the eve of her 21st year when the moon shows full and the dead may walk among the living, a warren witch will receive the gift to find the stone.' He believes the power is contained in the stone and hopes to use you in order to get it."

"Well if that's true, why kidnap Parker?" Caleb said, chiming into the conversation.

"It was a mistake. He put a bounty out for anyone who could bring him the girl from the prophecy, but you know how demons are, not always the brightest creatures. They kidnapped the wrong girl and know she is being used as bait to lure the right one." The seer said.

"We have to get you out of here." Caleb said grabbing her girlfriend. "If it is you this Warlock wants then we have to hide you somewhere safe."

"I am not just going to run away and hide." Melinda said, offended by her boyfriend's words. "Parker is in trouble, we can't just abandon her."

"I am sorry Melinda but this is for your own protection." And with that Caleb shimmered the two of them out of the underworld.

* * *

"No one is answering, they must be to far away to hear me." Wyatt said defeated after trying to contact the others.

"Well we can't just leave her here. There are only two demons. We could easily take them."

"No if we attack, more will come. We have to think this through, we can't just rush in."

Before they could think of a plan, they saw a young man enter the cave and walk up to the cage where Parker was being held.

Caleb and Melinda returned to the Manor to find Chris and Prue but to their dismay Parker was not with them, and neither were Wyatt and Hank.

"What happened? Why are you guys back?" Melinda asked her brother and cousin.

"Large group of demon's tried to kill us and we weren't sure where you guys had gone of to so we came back here to regroup." Chris told her. "Why are you back?"

"Same thing." Melinda lied; she did not feel like delving into the whole story about the seer and the prophecy right at this moment.

"Well we have to go back we can just leave Hank, Wyatt and Parker down there." Prue said as she paced back in forth in the nervous fashion the Halliwell women did when they were anxious.

"Prue is right we have to go back." Melinda said, though Chris and Caleb seemed reluctant.

"We can't just go running back, we have no clue where they are." Chris said.

"Actually I think I do. When we were down there I caught a few thoughts of some of the demons, I know where Parker is being held and once we find her we can go and find Hank and Wyatt." Melinda told them; rather proud she could be of so much use.

"Will you be able to find the place, everything looks the same." Chris asked, still unsure if this was a good idea.

"I have a clear picture in my head, I can find it." Melinda said with confidence.

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" Caleb asked grabbing his girlfriend's arm in an attempt to reason with her. Prue and Chris found it odd the way they were interacting with each other. Chris couldn't help but wonder if maybe Prue had been right about their feelings for one another.

"Yes I do." Melinda said defiantly pulling away from Caleb. "But we should hurry, I don't like the idea of Parker being trapped down their for any longer."

They all nodded in agreement and took Caleb's hand and he shimmered them all back down to the underworld.

* * *

"No one is answering, they must be to far away to hear me." Wyatt said defeated after trying to contact the others. The two had planned to attack on their own but another demon, who they figured was the leader behind this whole mess, had entered the cave, and without knowing who he was or what he could do, they did not want to take him on their own.

"Well we can't just leave her here. There are only two demons. We could easily take them."

"No if we attack, more will come. We have to think this through, we can't just rush in."

Before they could think of a plan, they heard the familiar sound of shimmering behind them. They turned thinking they had been caught by demons but were relieved to see it was only Chris, Caleb, Prue and Melinda.

"How on earth did you guys find us?" Wyatt asked, shocked that they had located them.

"It was all Melinda, she used her telepathy to track you down." Prue said.

"Nicely done Linnie." Wyatt smiled.

"I do what I can."

"I hate to break this up but how are we going to rescue Parker?" Hank asked.

"It's obviously a trap." Caleb said, knowing full well that was exactly what it was. "We can't just barge in, they will be expecting that."

"I will orb in and distract him, Caleb, Chris and Hank you cover me if and demon's show up and Prue and Melinda you grab Parker. Once you have her don't wait for us, head straight home. Do you understand?" They all nodded at Wyatt. "Ok lets do this."

"You know I am starting to think your little family has forgotten all about you." The Warlock teased as he walked around Parker's cage.

"Think again." Wyatt said as he sending a huge blast from his hand, sending the demon flying into one of the walls of the cave.

While the Warlock was distracted by the surprise attack, Prue and Melinda rushed over to rescue Parker from her cage. Melinda broke the lock with telekinesis and grabbed Parker.

"Go before he gets up. We can take care of it from here just get her home." Wyatt assured the girls and Prue took her two cousin's hands and teleported the out of the underworld.

"You think you are so clever don't you Halliwell?" The Warlock scoffed as he got up off the ground. "You may have won this round but the game isn't over. I will rule the underworld and there is nothing you can do to stop me." And with that the demon shimmered out.

"Should we go after him?" Hank asked but Wyatt just shook his head. "We can deal with him another day."

The boys returned to the Manor to find their whole family waiting for them. Paige was off in the corner fawning over Parker who seemed to be more shaken up then anything else.

* * *

"What a day I am exhausted, I think I am just going to head to sleep." Melinda said heading for the door.

"Um, Melinda aren't you forgetting something?" Chris asked trying desperately to hold back his laughter.

"Like what?"

"Your birthday" Caleb reminded her.

"Shit, why do I keep doing that?"

The whole family and Caleb headed over to P3 for Melinda's birthday party. When they arrived all the decorations were hung and most of the guests had already arrived.

"There you are, we have been looking all over for you" Alice said as she emerged from the crowd to hug her best friend.

"Did you guys do all of this?" Melinda asked gesturing to the finished decorations in the club.

"Ya, it was Roman's idea. Figured if we couldn't help you with the demons, might as well do something productive. Speaking of which what exactly happened today."

"I'll explain later. Right now I could really use a drink, after all I am legal now." The two girls laughed and headed to the bar.

* * *

"Hey babe what are you doing out here?" Gwen asked as she walked over to join her boyfriend in the alleyway behind the club. Wyatt had slipped out side to clear his head, he couldn't think with all the noise going on inside.

"Just getting some fresh air."

"Do you mind if I join you?"

"Not at all." Wyatt said smiling at his girlfriend. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have found her. Not only was she gorgeous but she was funny and smart and his best friend. He couldn't imagine life without her and knew he wanted to be with her forever.

"Gwen?"

"Yes."

Wyatt took in a deep breath and plucked up all the courage he had inside of him. He knelt before he and pulled out the ring he had been carrying around in his back packet for the last month and a half."

"Gwenevere Elizabeth Cooper, will you marry me?"


	2. And So It Begins

**And So It Begins**

"To Wyatt and Gwen, I don't know what you see in him Gwen, but there is a no return policy so he is all yours now." Chris joked as he held his glass up to give a toast.

"To Wyatt and Gwen." The rest of the table laughed and clinked their classes together in celebration.

"I can't believe you finally did it." Caleb said to his best friend.

"I can't believe you got engaged on my birthday." Melinda said a little peeved

"I am sorry Mel, we didn't mean to steal the focus." Gwen told her future sister-in-law.

"Its not that, its just if you had waited 4 more days I would have won $200." Melinda said and everyone, except Hank who had also lost the bet, laughed. "No I am very glad my birthday will forever be the day you got engaged. Ugh, this is just so exciting. So when are you going to have the wedding? Are you going to have it at home because I personally think with all the people we know you are going to need a bigger venue. And you should really start the planning process as early as possible because…"

Fearing his sister would ramble on till she was blue in the face, Wyatt cut her off by reminding her "Linnie, we just got engaged 3 hours ago."

"Right, sorry. Just got overly excited."

"I just can't believe my baby boy is engaged. It seems like just yesterday I was changing your little diapers." Piper beamed, she could have not been more pleased that her eldest son was engaged, and to Gwen who she had grown to consider like another daughter.

"Mom, stop. Between Melinda planning the wedding with out us and you gushing and telling embarrassing stories, I am surprised Gwen hasn't changed her mind yet." Wyatt said only half joking. He loved his family but they could be a lot to take some times.

"Well we will just leave the two of you alone. I am sure you have a lot to still discuss." Leo said in an attempt to save his eldest son from the family. Everyone slowly left the table and eventually the newly engaged couple was left sitting alone.

"So." Wyatt said to his bride-to-be, suddenly at a loss of words now that everyone had left.

"So." Gwen smiled back.

"We are getting married?"

"Yes, we are." Gwen laughed. She could tell that her fiancé was still in shock, though she couldn't see why. After all he had been the one who had been planning this for over a month now.

"I just can't believe you said yes." Wyatt admitted. He had been worried that she would say no and it would ruin everything they already had.

Gwen sighed. She now understood why he was acting so weird. "Of course I said yes. I love you and I want to be with you for the rest of my life."

"Well good because according to Chris, you are officially stuck with me." Wyatt said and the two laughed.

"So what did my dad say when you asked if you could marry me?" Gwen asked cuddling up to Wyatt.

"What do you mean?" Wyatt asked pulling away from Gwen so he could look her right in the face.

"You did ask my dad for permission first right?"

"I didn't realize people still did that." Wyatt said, he hadn't even thought about asking Gwen's father for permission. In all honestly he was a little afraid of Gwen's father. Gwen's family came from a long line of witches, like his own, but they were a bit more old fashion. Wyatt thought it might have something to do with the mass amount of wealth they had. They were also a lot smaller then the Halliwell clan. Gwen was an only child and while her father, Ethan Callaway, had a sister, she had died before Gwen was born. Gwen wasn't uptight like her family though, she enjoyed the utter chaos that seemed to follow the Halliwell family around but she still loved her own family and followed their rules to make them happy.

"He is going to be so angry." Gwen said shaking her head in panic.

"Don't worry about it your family loves me." Wyatt said with a smile. Gwen just glared at him. While her family did like Wyatt, she wouldn't go as far as to say that they loved him. "If you are that worried about it I will ask him tomorrow and we can just pretend I haven't proposed yet."

"You would do that?"

"Of course I would. As long as at the end of the day I get to marry you." Wyatt smiled and kissed her on the forehead. The couple sat in the corner the rest of the night and cuddled and talked while the party went on around them.

* * *

Melinda had been enjoying her party but the noise from everyone's thoughts was beginning to intensify and she felt as though she might pass out again. She quickly ran off to one of the back rooms in the hopes it would help drown out some of the noise.

"Hey Mel, are you ok?" Caleb asked entering the room after her. He was concerned that his girlfriend had been rubbing her temples a good majority of the night.

"Ya, I am fine. It is just kind of loud in here." Melinda said as she paced back and forth, feverishly massaging her head.

"We could probably ask to turn the music down." Caleb said trying to be helpful but missing her point entirely.

"Not that noise, it's just everyone's thoughts. They are starting to become clearer and much louder." Melinda explained as she continued to rub her temples.

"Oh." Caleb said nodding, understanding now why his girlfriend had escaped to the back room. "Well maybe we could get out of here and then you would only have to worry about hearing one other voice in your head." Caleb smiled as he pulled her close to him and kissed her ever so gently on the lips.

"I'd like that but I can't just leave. This party is for me after all." Melinda said sighing as she rested her head on Caleb's shoulders.

"Hey Mel we were just…" Prue began to say as she entered the back room but stopped short when she saw Caleb and Melinda holding each other. "I knew it!" She exclaimed pointing an accusatory finger at the pair but smiling all the while.

"Prue this isn't what it looks like." Melinda said pulling away from Caleb and trying desperately to think of an excuse.

"So you two weren't in here making out?"

"No." Melinda lied, technically it wasn't a lie though, they had only kissed.

"Then what were you doing?" Prue asked, not convinced.

"I wasn't feeling well and Caleb just came in here to comfort me." Melinda said, again not fully lying.

Prue knew her cousin was lying, but since it was her birthday she decided to let it go for now. "Well I just came to tell you that we are all heading out."

"Oh ok hang on one second I will come and say goodbye." Melinda said relieved her cousin had dropped the subject of her and Caleb making out.

"I should probably be heading home as well. It's getting late and I have work tomorrow." Caleb told Melinda and hugged her goodbye before shimmering out.

Melinda sighed. This whole secret thing was starting to suck, but she was too scared to tell her family. Caleb was six years older then her and he was practically family. If it didn't work out for some reason she was not really sure what would happen. There was too much fear surrounding the relationship as it was, she didn't want to bring everybody else in on it too, at least not yet.

Melinda hugged the rest of her family and friends goodbye and thanked them for coming. It really had been one heck of a party.

"Ready to head home?" Alice asked her roommate after everyone had gone.

"Ya." She said. "Thanks again, this party was great. I love you guys." Melinda said hugging both of her parents before taking Alice's hand and orbing out.

"What a day." Piper sighed to her husband who was the only other person left in the club.

"It was quit eventful." Leo laughed and the two embraced before walking hand in hand out of the club.

* * *

That night Melinda had another one of her dreams, only this time it was different. This time instead of watching the scene take place, she was in it. It was dark and she could not see much, but she knew exactly where she was. She was in the back of a carriage taking her to be burned alive. The fear was building as she drew closer to the opening in the woods. All of a sudden the carriage stopped and a man in a black hooded robe opened the back of the carriage and pulled her over to the Pyre. The man in the black hooded cape tied her to a pole so that she could not escape. A second man emerged from the crowd and Melinda couldn't help but feel like she had seen him somewhere before.

"Come to enjoy your handy work, Jonathan?" Melinda found herself saying. It was as if she was not in control of this body but rather trapped inside.

"This is your last chance Melinda Warren, tell me where the stone is and you may yet escape the pyre's flame"

"I will tell you nothing." Melinda said to the man. She noticed that her voice did not sound like her own, but it was coming from her. She was moving her lips but the voice that came out belong to someone else. "You may kill me, but you cannot kill my kind. I vow that with each generation of Warren witches will grow stronger, culminating in the arrival of three sisters. These three sisters will be the most powerful witches the world has ever known. They will destroy all kinds of evil and shall be called the Charmed Ones." Melinda yelled in the voice that was not her own and spit blood so that it hit where Jonathan stood.

"Have it your way." He replied softly so only Melinda could hear and as he leaned in close to her, she was certain that she had seen those blue eyes before though she did not recognize the man. Jonathan turned from her toward the crowd. "Let this be a lesson to all of those who stray from the path of good and righteousness." Jonathan nodded to the hooded guard and he began to light the pyre. "Melinda Warren you have been found guilty of committing the darkest art, witchcraft. For this affront against God, I hereby condemn you to burn in the fires of Hell of which you so eagerly seek communion."

Melinda could feel the heat of the flames all around her.

She woke up in her bed screaming, as if the flames had been real and she was being burnt alive.

"What, what happened? What's going on?" Alice said as she ran into Melinda's room.

Melinda took a few seconds to take in her surroundings. It had all just been a dream. But it had felt so real. In the past her dreams had been vivid but never this realistic. She could still feel the cold night air and how the flames licked at her skin. "Sorry, bad dream." Melinda finally said after she had collected herself.

"They're getting worse, aren't they?" Alice said, concerned for her best friend. Alice knew Melinda had been having bad dreams, but this was the first time she had been awoken by one.

"It was just so real." Melinda told her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Don't worry about it. Though maybe you should go talk to your dad about this. I'd rather not make this a nightly thing." Alice said before leaving to return to her own room.

Melinda desperately wanted to believe these dreams were not related to magic, but it was getting harder and harder to do. Maybe Alice was right, she should go talk to her dad about this, if only to assure herself that these dreams were nothing to worry about. Melinda resolved to go see him in the morning and went back to sleep, praying the rest of the night would be dreamless.

* * *

"I can not believe they got away." The warlock said through gritted teeth as he sat on his thrown.

"Forgive me master, but why did you let them go so easily?" A woman asked. Aside from the warlock she was the only other person in the room. She wore tight black leather from head to toe and had beautiful olive skin and dark black hair.

"I was out numbered. And besides I don't want to kill the girl, I want to use her." The warlock mused. "Perhaps I have been going about this the wrong way though. There are far too many of them, I am powerful but not powerful enough, yet. Once I have the stone I will be able to rid myself of them but until then I must go about this quietly."

"So what do we do now Master?" The woman asked.

"Our families go way back, all the way back to the Salem witch trials. Did you know that?"

"I know, your family murdered mine." The woman said with bitterness in her voice.

"Yes, I am afraid we did." The warlock said as he lifted the woman's arm and examined the tattoo of a red Phoenix she had right under her wrist. "But how wonderful now that we can work together for a common goal."

"My only goal is to collect my bounty." The woman said pulling her arm away from the Warlocks grasp.

"And you shall have it, once you complete your task." The warlock said with a wicked smile across his face.

* * *

Wyatt was beginning to regret telling Gwen he would go and speak to her father. As he stood outside the large mansion where the Callaway's lived, he no longer felt like one of the most powerful magical beings alive, he felt as small and insignificant as an ant and he didn't like it. He was dressed in his Sunday best and his hair was slicked back making him look very sophisticated. Still he couldn't help but feel like this was a bad idea. What if her father said no, what would he do then? He had been tortured by the idea of Gwen saying no for well over a month now but somehow this felt worse. He sighed and mustered up all the courage he had left before ringing the doorbell.

One of the maids answered and escorted Wyatt to Ethan Callaway's office. He straightened his tie and smoothed out his jacket before knocking on the office door. He almost fell over when the door swung open and Ethan was standing in the doorframe. Ethan Callaway was not a big man, he was a good 5 inches shorter then Wyatt and being in his late fifties he was rather small and grey. Still he commanded a presence that was like no other.

"Mr. Halliwell, what are you doing here?" Ethan asked looking his only daughter's boyfriend up and down.

"Actually sir, I came here to talk to you." Wyatt said. He could hear his voice sounded shaky.

"Well then come in." Ethan said gesturing for Wyatt to take a seat. Ethan walked behind Wyatt and sat in a big leather chair behind an even bigger desk. It made him look powerful and it made Wyatt sink in his chair ever so slightly.

"Well sir you see I have been dating your daughter for quit some time now." Wyatt mumbled. "And I would like to ask for your permission to ask her to marry me."

"No." Ethan said flat out. Wyatt was caught of guard, sure he has been worried Gwen's father would say know but he never thought he would actually say no.

"I'm sorry sir. Why not?" Wyatt asked.

"You are fine as a boyfriend but how do I know you will make a good husband."

"I love your daughter, and I will do everything in my power to make her happy and I promise I will be the best husband to her I can be."

"I am sorry but my answer remains the same. Now if you don't mind I am a very busy man. I can't just sit around here all day arguing with you. I am sure you can see yourself out." Ethan said in a voice so cold it gave Wyatt goose bumps.

Wyatt was at a loss for words. He could not believe what just happened. His head was spinning as he left the Callaway mansion. He knew that he was not Mr. Callaway's favorite person in the world, but he had been dating Gwen for years now. Did he not think this would happen eventually? Wyatt was not sure what he was going to do next but he knew he couldn't just give up. He loved Gwen and he was going to marry her no matter what it took.

* * *

Parker's kidnapping had the whole of magic school in a buzz, partly because an extremely powerful Warlock kidnapping one of the students wasn't something that happened on a regular basis and partly because Parker had a big mouth and a vivid imagination.

"And then he tried to throw me across the room using magic but I, being quick on my toes as I am, was able to dive out of the way. And I told him he could never defeat me or my family, he said I was being ridiculous but obviously I was right because here I am." Parker recounted an embellished version of the kidnapping to a large group of students that were sitting around, hanging on to her every word.

"Were you scared?" Asked a red headed girl who looked to be about 15.

"Of course not." Parker said but she had actually been terrified. "We Halliwells don't get scared. Its not in our nature."

Before Parker could continue her story she saw two figures shimmer in on the other side of the room, she stiffened at first fearing a demon had some how been able to break in to Magic school but relaxed once she saw it was only Melinda and Caleb. She was intrigued how ever as to why they were here. Both had graduated Magic School years ago and even though they came back every now and then, especially because Melinda's father was the head master, it was odd that they would be here in the middle of the day during school hours, together.

"If you will excuse me, I have to go speak with my cousin." Parker said excusing her self from her avid fans and walking over to Melinda and Caleb.

"Hey Parker, do you know where my dad is?" Melinda asked her cousin as she walked over.

"He is probably in his office. What are you guys doing here?" Parker asked

"We just happened to be hanging out together and I needed to speak to my dad so Caleb gave me a lift over, it's not weird. We are friends." Melinda said nervously. Caleb just stared at her like she had lost her mind.

"Never said it was." Parker said, a little confused by her cousins behavior.

"So Leo is in his office then?" Caleb asked trying to break the tension.

"Ya that is where he usually is around this time." Parker told them.

"Thanks" Caleb said and escorted Melinda down the endless hallway towards her father's office.

"Well that was weird." Parker mused to herself once Caleb and Melinda were out of earshot.

"What was that?" Caleb asked his girlfriend once the two were far enough away from Parker.

"Sorry I have just been really on edge about this whole secret relationship thing this Prue walked in on us last night." Melinda confessed.

Caleb sighed. He really hated having to be so secretive. If it was up to him they would have just told everyone already but Melinda wouldn't have it. Though he could see she was starting to crack. He figured he would just give it time and eventually she would tell them. Before Caleb could say anything though, the door to Leo's office flung open to reveal Chris standing in the doorway.

"Chris, what are you doing here?" Melinda asked, surprised to see her brother at Magic School. She was even more surprised because he was dressed in his work clothes and had obviously come from the Police Station.

"Just came to spend some quality time with my father." Chris told his sister.

"You're lying." She said to him, looking him up and down. The clothes were a dead give away but thanks to her new powers she could also hear what he was thinking. "You came here to talk to dad about a case you are working on. But why?"

"How did you know that?" Chris asked, completely taken off guard by how accurate his sister was.

"Telepathy, remember? It's getting quit annoying actually." Caleb reminded Chris. Melinda smacked Caleb lightly over the head. She knew that her being able to hear every thing he thought was getting on his nerves but did he ever stop to think how she felt about it.

"Right." Chris nodded forgetting about his sister's new powers. "What are you two doing here anyways?"

"We came to talk to your dad about the strange dreams Melinda has been having. See I think…" but before Caleb could finish, Melinda smacked him on the head again. "What?" he asked looking all hurt and defensive.

"You're still having those dreams?" Chris asked, thankful for a change in subject.

"Don't change the subject." Melinda said catching on to what Chris was trying to do. "Why do you need dads help with an investigation. Is there magic involved?"

Fearing he might think something he didn't want his sister to hear, Chris quickly told her it was nothing and that he had to go.

"Well that was strange." Caleb mused once Chris had left.

Melinda just rolled her eyes at Caleb and knocked on her father's office door.

"Come in." Leo shouted through the door. "Melinda, Caleb, what are you two doing here?" Leo asked surprised to see his daughter and the half demon at Magic School.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about something." Melinda said shyly as she and Caleb entered the room. "Caleb could you maybe wait in the hall?" She didn't really want Caleb hearing this plus she feared it would make her dad suspicious if she allowed him to stay.

"Ya of course, I will just be outside." Caleb said and went in to kiss Melinda on the forehead before remembering that was probably a bad idea and awkwardly made a B line for the door.

"So what is it you need to talk about?" Leo asked his only daughter.

"Well" Melinda said hesitantly as she made her way into the office and sat down at the chair across from her fathers "I have been having these strange dreams lately."

"I know your mother told me about them."

"Are there no secrets in this family?" Melinda said a little peeved her mother had told her father about her dreams.

"Your mother and I are just worried about you." Leo asked noticing his daughter's overly fraught expression.

"Well, I am not even sure they are anything to worry about. I just wanted to be sure." Melinda said hopefully. What she really wanted was for her father to tell her these dreams were the result of too much caffeine or falling asleep with the TV on.

"I have not encountered anything like this before. Perhaps you are right that it is nothing but better safe then sorry. I will ask the Elders what they think, maybe they can shed some light on the matter."

"I would rather not get the elders involved." Melinda was not a huge fan of the elders, no one in her family really was. Regardless of her feelings towards them however they did come in handy every now and then but for some reason she felt the need to keep this from them.

"I know they are not your favorite people but they can be very useful at times." Leo said but he could tell by his daughter's expression that she wasn't buying it. "Well if you are that dead set against it the only other thing I can suggest is looking through the library. Maybe you could fine something there."

"Thanks Dad. I will definitely see what I can find." Melinda lied, she had no intention of going through the thousands of books in the library.

"How is your new power coming along?" Leo asked his daughter as she began to leave but sank back in her chair at his question.

"Its fine." She lied. It was not fine. She hated it. It was starting to grow and she was starting to be able to hear clear thoughts and they were becoming more frequent as well. She had lost track of the amount of Advil she had taken though it wasn't really helping.

"Good, you know it might not hurt to come back for a course on controlling and channeling it. We don't have very many telepaths here, it is a very rare power but there is a professor on staff who might be able to help. He is a telepath himself and your mother and I have known him for years. Very talented man."

"Ya, maybe." The idea of taking a class to control her powers did not sound like something Melinda wanted to spend her time doing, but maybe it would at least help with the headaches. "Well I think I am going to go hit the books." And with that Melinda slipped out of her father's office and out in the hall where she found Caleb sitting outside waiting for her.

"Hey, how did it go? Did he have any leads?" Caleb asked.

"No, but I think I might have an idea of someone who will. Can you take me back to see the seer?"

* * *

"Hey Halliwell, what did your dad have to say?" Michael Morris, Daryl Morris' younger son, asked Chris as he entered the police station. Michael worked as a detective, like his father, and had been assigned to work as Chris' partner since they both knew about magic and could handle the 'freakier' cases.

"Not much though there was something but maybe we should talk about this somewhere a little more private." Chris suggested looking around at the overly crowded police station.

Michael nodded in agreement and the two slipped away into Daryl's office. Daryl had been promoted to chief a few years ago, so he got his own private office in the back of the station. He was out at the moment so the office was completely empty.

"So what did you find out?" Michael asked eagerly. Though he was not a magical being himself, he grew up with the Halliwells and knew all about magic and was always ready to help out when he could.

"He said the victims have definitely all been witches, the elders have been closely tracking the situation. As to who the culprit is though, they're still not sure. The killings are too generic to be able to pin it on any particular demon." Chris said relaying what Leo had told him.

"But all the victims have had giant round wounds on their chest, how do the elders explain that?" Michael asked, using the word 'elder' in a mocking tone. Even he was not a fan of them.

"They say that it's consistent with wounds on victims whose powers have been drained from their bodies." Chris explained.

"So what are we suppose to do now?" Michael asked. Disappointed Chris hadn't found more to go on.

"I don't know. I guess we go check the book and see what we can find." Chris said and held out his hand so he could orb the two back to the Manor to look in the Book of Shadows for the killer.

* * *

After leaving the Callaway Manor, Wyatt orbed himself back to his apartment that he shared with Gwen. He found her sitting on the couch reading a book and eagerly awaiting his arrival.

"So how did it go?" Gwen asked when she heard the familiar sounds of her fiancé orbing into the apartment.

"He said no." Wyatt said plopping down next to Gwen on the couch.

"He said no? That's impossible why would he say no?" Gwen was as shocked as Wyatt had been.

"Apparently I am not husband material." Wyatt told her.

"That's ridiculous. Are you sure he said no?" Wyatt just nodded at her. "Well maybe I should go talk to him."

"And have it look like I tattled on him. No I am going to fix this on my own." Wyatt said, he was not going to have Gwen go running to her Dad, that would be plan B.

"And how exactly are you going to fix this?"

"Still working on that part."

* * *

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Caleb asked as he shimmered himself and Melinda into the underworld. "Seers can be tricky. They can't always be trusted."

"You trusted her before to help us find Parker." Melinda reminded him.

"Yes but that was different." Caleb argued. "It was an emergency situation."

"So is this." Melinda said forcefully as she walked along a corridor trying to find her way, though she had no sense of direction when it came to the underworld.

"Melinda, please." Caleb begged as he grabbed his girlfriend's arms and forced her to stop and look at him. "It's not safe down here. Whatever it is you are trying to find, it can't be important enough to risk your life over."

"But it is." Melinda said defiantly, pulling her arms away from Caleb. "I need to figure out what these dreams mean. I know I said that they were nothing before, but now I am not so sure. They are trying to tell me something and I need to figure out what. I need to know."

Caleb sighed, he knew there was no use arguing with her. She had made her mind up and she wasn't going to change it no matter how much he pleaded. "Fine, the seer is this way." Caleb pointed in the opposite direction of where Melinda had been leading them.

"Right then," Melinda said a little embarrassed by her lack of directional skills.

* * *

Chris and Michael orbed into the attic of the Manor to find Prue sitting on Aunt pearl's couch, flipping through the Book Shadow.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have work?" Chris asked, surprised to see his cousin at his house in the middle of the day.

"No, your mom gave me the day off because she was over staffed and I was bored so I decided to come over and study up on the Book of Shadows." Prue worked as a chef at Piper's restaurant. "What are you two doing here? Don't you have work?"

"We are working." Michael said but stopped when Chris gave him a dirty look. Chris knew if Prue found out what they were up to, she would want to join in and he really did not want that.

"We were just going to quickly check something in the book and then we were going to be on our way. So if you don't mind…" Chris said trying to take the book from Prue but she held it close to her chest so he couldn't have it.

"What are you two up to?" She asked suspicious of Chris and Michael.

"Fine, we think that a demon may be behind one of the cases we are investigating." Chris finally confessed.

"Really?" Prue asked intrigued by the idea of a demon hunt. "Do you know which one?"

"If we did would we need to look in the book?" Chris asked sarcastically.

"Good point." Prue said and handed the book to her older cousin.

Chris began to frantically flip through the pages of the book looking for a demon that would fit the MO of the killer. He passed the pages on Furies, Valkyries, Phoenixes and Banshees before slamming it shut in frustration.

"The killings are too generic. It could have been anyone" Chris said, frustrated that he had so little to go on.

"Now what?" Prue asked but before either boy could answer, Michael's phone began to ring.

"Hello?" Michael said into the phone. He listened intently for a few seconds, nodding every now and then before closing it shut. "There has been another murder."

* * *

Wyatt got up the courage to go back to the Callaway mansion to speak with Gwen's father again. This time he would not leave until Ethan said yes, he would stay there all night if he had to. It didn't matter; he wanted to marry Gwen and one way or another he was going to do it. Wyatt did not bother with pleasantries this time he barged right up to Ethan Callaway's office and swung the door open.

"Back again Mr. Halliwell? What can I help you with now?" Ethan asked a little annoyed by the intrusion.

Wyatt straightened up. He had been practicing what he was going to say all afternoon. "Mr. Callaway while I respect your decision to refuse to give me your daughters hand in marriage, I must tell you that I plan to marry her regardless. I don't know what I ever did to make you not like me but I am a good person, and a good witch and I am going to make a good husband. And while I plan to go ahead and marry your daughter, I would greatly appreciate your blessing. So please tell me what can I do to make you like me?"

"What ever gave you the impression that I don't like you Wyatt?" Ethan asked keeping a cool tone of voice.

"Well for one you wont let me marry your daughter."

"I have nothing against you as a person Wyatt. You are an honorable young man, you have a good job and you make Gwen very happy."

Wyatt was confused. If Ethan didn't hate him then why wouldn't he let him marry Gwen?

"My boy, it has nothing to do with your character." Ethan continued. "Rather your family."

Wyatt was offended. No one insulted his family. "What is wrong with my family? We are just as powerful as yours. We may not be as rich but I make a good living so what should it matter."

"I have nothing against your family. I just don't want my daughter marrying in to it. The Halliwell name brings danger with it. You are all constantly under attack and that is not the life I want for my daughter or my future grandchildren." Wyatt now understood why Ethan had said no and he couldn't say he didn't see his point. His family was one of the most powerful families of witches and with that brought a lot of danger from constant demon attacks. Wyatt was again at a loss for words. He said nothing to Ethan, he just showed himself out, still trying to process everything. It was time for plan B.

* * *

Caleb and Melinda finally emerged from the endless tunnels of the underworld and found themselves in the seers cave.

"I thought you might be back." The seer said peering into her big pool of water, not even looking up to see who had entered her cave.

"We need your help." Melinda said. She was desperate for answers.

"I know what you seek." The seer said, still staring into the pool. "But you will not find it here."

"I just want to know what my dreams mean. Why can I see what Melinda Warren sees? You must have some answers." The desperation in Melinda's voice was growing.

"Answers I have, but they will be of no use to you. What you seek is far more precious." The seer said running her hands across the pool, creating ripples in the water.

"I don't seek anything else." Melinda corrected her.

"Oh but you will." The seer said with a wicked smile. "The only problem is finding it. You see it is very small and has been lost in space and time for many moons now. Finding it will be like trying to find something smaller than a needle, in a haystack, when you don't even know if you're in the right field."

"What is it?" Melinda asked eagerly.

"That I can not tell you, but I think you already know."

"The stone." Melinda breathed.

The seer smiled and nodded.

Melinda had remembered Jonathan asking Melinda Warren about a stone in her dreams but she had never given that detail much thought.

"But what is it?" Melinda asked still unsure of what this all meant.

"The stone is an amulet. It holds the greatest power in our world." The seer told her.

"What power? And why did Melinda Warren have it? And what does this all have to do with me." Melinda blurted out every question that was currently running around in her head.

"These things I can not tell you."

"No but you must." Melinda said in desperation. She had been trying to read the seers mind to find the answer but either her power was not strong enough yet or the seer was blocking her thoughts because she could not hear anything.

"You two should go. I sense a great power coming this way and you wouldn't want to be caught."

"Melinda we should get out of here." Caleb said trying to grab his girlfriend's hand so he could shimmer them both out to safety.

Melinda looked from Caleb to the seer. How could she leave now when she still had so many questions? But Caleb was right, if they didn't leave now, it might not matter what answers she found, they would both be dead. Melinda reluctantly took Caleb's hand and he shimmered them both back to the Manner.

A mere five seconds after the two had shimmered out, a dark hooded figure entered the cave.

The seer bowed her head in respect to the figure, who pulled back his hood to reveal his long dark hair that was as black as a raven and his blue eyes that burnt with hatred and cruelty.

"Where is the girl?" The warlock asked in a deep and cold voice.

"I don't know what you are talking about" the seer lied.

"I know she was here and I know you were helping her." The warlock walked over to the seer and grabbed her by the throat so that her feet were barely touching the ground. "What did you tell her?"

"Kill me and you will never know." The seer spat back in his face.

"I am not going to kill you." The Warlock said with a wicked smile as he let go of his grasp on the seer. "No I have other plans for you." He turned to his guards who had escorted him to the seers cave and motioned from them to take her.

* * *

Michael, Chris, and Prue orbed in behind a dumpster in a crowded alleyway. Michael has gotten a call from his father, the Chief, that there had been another murder and that the Chris and Michael should come over right away.

Daryl, seeing them rushed over. "Whoa, you guys can't just orb in here. What if somebody saw you?

"But nobody did." Prue said looking around to see that everyone was too preoccupied to even notice their arrival.

"Prue what are you even doing here? This is a crime scene." Daryl asked.

"Oh I just tagged along for 'extra' assistance." Prue said using air quotes around the word extra. She actually meant magical but that wasn't something you just said out loud at a crime scene.

"Well we wont be needing any 'extra' help." Daryl told them. "We already caught the guy."

"But how?" Chris asked amazed. "Are you sure it's the right guy?"

"Positive. The victim's friend was with her when it happened. She already identified the killer and we have him in custody." Daryl told them.

"That doesn't make any sense." Chris argued. He was certain these killings had to do with magic. All the victims had been witches. "Did the suspect confess?"

"No, we are taking him down to the station for more questioning, but the victims friend already identified him." Daryl said.

"Can I speak with the her?" Chris was still not convinced they had the right guy.

"Sure she is over there." Daryl said pointing to a young women standing in the corner speaking to one of the paramedics. "But please no freaky talk ok?"

Chris just nodded and headed over to the girl. Chris couldn't help but think she was beautiful. She had olive skin and silky black hair and the most beautiful brown eyes Chris had ever seen.

"Excuse me miss, do you think I could speak with you for a minute?" Chris asked as he approached the woman.

"Yes of course." The woman smiled. She turned to the paramedic who had been tending her wound on her arm and thanked him before turning her focus back on Chris. "I already told the other detective what I know. I don't know what else I can really help you with."

"How did you know the victim?" Chris asked trying to find the best way to go about this.

"We worked together." The woman said.

"And where do you work?"

"A flower shop, just around the corner. I just started a few weeks ago though. I am new to San Francisco. Sarah, that was my friends name Sarah, she was just showing me around."

"So you don't know if she was into any weird stuff?" Chris asked and the second he did, he wished he hadn't. He could tell this woman had no idea what he was talking about.

"I am sorry, I don't think I understand. But I really should go. They want me to go down to the station to identify the killer again."

"Of course" Chris said nodding to the woman as she walked away. "Wait" Chris called out after her. "What is your name? You know for my records."

"Bianca."

* * *

Wyatt had returned back to his and Gwen's apartment and told her everything her father had said. Gwen was furious. How dare her father deny her this? What right did he have to say the Halliwell family was not good enough for her? As soon as Wyatt told her the whole story she had him orb the two of them back to her childhood home.

"Daddy how dare you?" Gwen practically yelled as she stormed into her father's office. Wyatt had decided to wait outside.

"Sweetheart understand I am only looking out for your best interest." Ethan protested.

"Daddy, I am going to marry him whether you like it or not. He is the strongest, bravest, kindest man I know and he would give his life before he would let anything happen to me. After all these years, what will marrying him change? I have fought along side him and his family before and I am fine. Why does marrying him change that?"

"I have never liked that you demon hunt with them. And what about your children? Do you really want to put that burden on them?"

"If that is how you feel then you are an ignorant fool. I will marry him and if you can't except that then I will go but don't expect me to come back." Gwen said with a great sense of sadness in her voice as she began to walk toward the door.

"Wait." Ethan said stopping his daughter before she made it to the door. "Does he make you happy?"

"Very much."

Ethan sighed. He could see his daughter's feelings for this boy written all over her face. How could he deny her this happiness? "If he lets anything happen to you I swear I will kill him."

Gwen smiled and rushed to hug her father. "Oh thank you Daddy!"

Wyatt had been pacing outside the Mansion in the similar fashion to what most of the Halliwells did when they were nervous. His heart jumped a bit when he saw Gwen walking towards him.

"How did it go?" Wyatt asked eagerly.

"Looks like you're your stuck with me." Gwen smiled and Wyatt picked her up and spun her around before kissing her passionately on the lips.

"So we are really doing this? We are getting married?" Wyatt said, it was all starting to hit him.

"Looks that way." Gwen smiled back. She could not be happier.

* * *

Michael left to return to the police station and Chris and Prue orbed back to the Manor.

"It just doesn't make any sense." Chris complained to his cousin. "All of those victims were witches. Why would a mortal be targeting witches?"

"I don't know." Prue said shaking her head, she was just as confused as Chris.

"I think I am going to go check the book again." Chris said as he ascended the stairs to the attic, Prue not far behind him.

The two stopped however, half way up the steps when they heard the sounds of Melinda and Caleb in the middle of a heated argument.

"I am not taking you back down there." Caleb practically yelled. The two had been fighting ever since they had gotten back from the Underworld. Melinda wanted to go back to see the seer but Caleb refused to take her.

"If you wont take me I will find someone who will." Melinda yelled back. She knew that Caleb was only trying to protector her but she had so many more questions still unanswered.

"No one else is going to be able to find the seer." Caleb reminded her. The underworld was a tricky place, you couldn't just orb in willy-nilly.

Melinda knew he was right and decided to change her tactics from yelling to pleading. She walked over to him and lay her head on his chest and rapped her arms around him. "Please." She said in the cutest voice she could muster up.

"No." Caleb said forcefully, putting his hands on her shoulder and puller her away from him. He was not fooled by what she was doing.

"Fine." Melinda sighed.

Caleb felt kind of bad. He knew how much she wanted answers but he couldn't let her risk her life for them. He pulled her back into a hug and kissed her lightly on top of her head. "I promise we will figure this out, but going to see the seer is not the answer."

"I guess your right." Melinda said smiling up at him and stood up on her tippy toes to give him a kiss.

Caleb smiled. Melinda was a good deal shorter then him and it took a great deal of effort for her to reach his lips if he wasn't bending over. "Now then I don't know about you but I am starving. What do you say we go back to my place and find some food?"

"Why can't we just eat something here?" Melinda asked.

"Because someone might come home and then I can't do this." Caleb said kissing her passionately on the lips ands shimmering the two of them out of the Manor.

"What just happened?" Chris asked ask as he and Prue entered the attack once Melinda and Caleb were gone.

"See I told you there was something going on." Prue beamed.

Chris was at a loss for words. He had forgotten all about the murder investigation at this point. He couldn't believe Prue had been right.

Prue saw her cousins shocked expression and laughed. She figured they would have to pick up on the demon hunt tomorrow.

* * *

After eating Dinners over at Caleb's apartment, Melinda went back to her own apartment for the night. As she put on her pajamas and got under the covers she prayed that she would not have another one of her dreams. Her wish was granted, that night she did not dream about Melinda Warren. Instead she found her self on what looked to be the surface of a cloud. She had never been up to the elders before, but she thought that this might be what the heavens looked like. Everything was white and misty and it was hard to see more then three feet in front of you.

"Hello?" Melinda cried out to no one in particular. "Is anyone here?"

"I have been expecting you." A male voice said behind her. She whipped around to see the warlock who had kidnapped Parker standing in front of her.

"Where are we?" Melinda asked feeling a sense of familiarity with the warlock.

"This is the Psychic Plane." The warlock said motioning to the space around them. "This is the realm of consciousness, where one finds a sense of self."

"What are we doing here? What do you want from me?" Melinda asked still confused by the current situation.

"Your understanding" The warlock replied.

"I understand you perfectly, you are a Warlock. You don't follow the creed you just take whatever you want." Melinda spat.

"If I were to simply take whatever I wanted you would already be in my bedchamber." The warlock said, walking closer to Melinda.

Melinda shifted slightly away from the warlock but did not lose her composure.

"Who are you?" Melinda asked, though she already knew the answer. She had recognized his face but she was praying she was wrong.

"I think you already know the answer." The warlock said moving so close to Melinda that their faces were almost touching.

"Jonathan." Melinda breathed his name.

"Don't worry my pet, I am not going to hurt you. All I want is for you to find me the stone."

"Why would I help you?" Melinda asked, trying not to suppress the fear in her voice.

"Because if you don't, I'll kill you and your family." Jonathan said with a wicked smile. "You have until the winter solstice to bring it to me, and lets keep this between us shall we. We wouldn't want your pesky family to interfere. Understand?"

Melinda could do nothing but nod.

Suddenly she felt the dream world slipping away and she was back in her room. Melinda was not sure what she was going to do next, but she knew that she had to find that stone, and fast.


	3. A Wisp Of A Thing

**A Wisp Of A Thing**

"Caleb where are we going?" Melinda asked as she followed him through the forest.

Caleb had shimmered the two of them to the near by woods but Caleb would not tell Melinda why they were there or where exactly it was they were going.

"Come on its just a bit further." Caleb called back to Melinda who was lagging behind.

"What is just a bit further?" Melinda asked, slightly annoyed that her boyfriend had shimmered them to the middle of nowhere at night. "Come on Caleb this isn't funny. We shouldn't be out here."

"Stop worrying. We are here." Caleb said abruptly stopping, causing Melinda, who was not paying attention to where she was going, to run right into him.

"And where exactly is here?" Melinda said, looking around.

"It's the highest spot in San Francisco. You can see all of the lights from the city at night." Caleb said pointing out to the bright city in the distance.

"Its beautiful." Melinda said, admiring the view. "How did you know about this place?"

"My dad use to take me up here as a kid." Caleb said, sitting down on a fallen tree near by. Melinda joined him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"It's so peaceful up here." Melinda mused. "I can't believe how bright the city is. What's that light over there?" Melinda asked pointing to a bright yellow light that seemed to be moving closer to them.

"I don't know. Must be from the glare of the street lights or something." Caleb said not really paying attention to what Melinda was looking at.

Melinda was mesmerized by the light however. She couldn't help but feel like the light was alive. She got up from where she and Caleb were sitting and began walking towards it. As she got closer to it she could have sworn she heard sounds emanating from it. She reached out her hand to touch it but it moved just out of her reach. She was so captivated by its beauty. She found herself following the light. Her arm stretched out to touch it but it kept moving just out of her reach.

"Melinda, what are you doing?" Caleb finally said noticing his girlfriend slowly walking away.

"What could you possibly be?" Melinda smiled looking in awe at the glowing ball of light and completely ignoring Caleb's question.

"Melinda stay away from it." Caleb said jumping up and pulling Melinda's hand away from the light. The orbs passive nature suddenly changed and it shot right at Melinda and Caleb nocking them both to the ground. The two lay there unconscious while the yellow orb buzzed around them.

* * *

Alice was glad to have the apartment to herself for the night. It was Saturday so she didn't have school the next day, and she had decided to stay in and watch the horror movies she couldn't watch when Melinda was home because she was chicken. She thought it was funny that someone who fought big scary demons on a regular basis would be scared of fictional demons in horror films.

"No don't go in there stupid! Call the police!." Alice yelled at the television.

Just as the young girl in the film was about to open the door to the basement in the creepy old house to reveal the killer standing right on the other side, there was a loud knock at the door. Alice jumped, spilling popcorn everywhere. Alice paused the TV and looked up at the door. She knew it wasn't Melinda because she had a key and wasn't supposed to be home for hours. If it was a demon they would have just knocked down the door already and almost everyone else she knew never had the curtsy to knock because they could all just teleport in. Alice ran into the kitchen and grabbed a big cutting knife before slowly making her way towards the door.

"Who is it?" She yelled through the door, knife at the ready to kill any monster that might try to attach her.

"It's me. Roman." Roman yelled through the door.

Alice sighed in relief and quickly undid the locks to open the door.

"Hey Roman, what are you doing here?" Alice said as she swung the door open with her free hand.

"Were you planning on stabbing me to death?" Roman asked pointing to the knife that was still in Alice's hand.

"Oh no sorry." Alice laughed a little embarrassed and put the knife down on the side table where they kept the mail. "I was watching a horror movie. Just made me a little jumpy."

"Oh." Roman nodded, laughing a little at his best friends behavior. "Well can I come in?"

"Oh ya." Alice said moving to the side to let Roman come into the apartment. "So what are you doing here?"

"I came to speak to Melinda, is she here?" Roman asked looking around for their other best friend.

Alice was disappointed that Roman hadn't come to see her, though she wasn't entirely sure why. "No, she is out for the night but I am sure I can help you with whatever you need."

"Actually its not a magical problem. The lead singer for my band bailed on us and we have a gig tomorrow night. I wanted to see if Melinda would fill in." Roman explained. Roman loved music and had been playing guitar for as long as he could remember. He and a few of his non-magical college friends had formed a band but their lead singer always flaked out on them. Roman had asked Melinda if she would be her replacement permanently but even though Melinda had a beautiful voice, she was rather shy and not a fan of the spotlight.

"Well sorry, she is not here." Alice said rather bitterly.

"Well do you know when she will be back?" Roman asked.

"No sorry." Alice said, walking back over to the couch and picking up all the popcorn she had spilled.

"Well I can always just wait for her to get back." Roman said, walking over to Alice and helping her clean up the last few pieces of popcorn. "As long as you don't mind."

"Why would I mind?" Alice remarked. She actually did mind. It wasn't that she didn't want to hang out with Roman. It just annoyed her that he was only there for Melinda.

"Great." Roman smiled and sat down on the couch. "So what are we watching?"

"_Scream 6_." Alice told him sitting down next to him.

"How can you watch this junk?" Roman joked. "Everyone knows the original is the best."

"Well I have it if you would prefer to watch that one." Alice said, growing rather annoyed with Roman.

Roman just smiled at her. He loved how her nose scrunched up when she was angry. "No, _Scream 6_ is fine."

Alice just rolled her eyes and pressed play on the remote.

* * *

Caleb's eyes shot open and he bolted up right. He looked around to find Melinda was still unconscious on the forest floor. He ran over to her and began shaking her to wake up.

"Melinda. Are you ok?" Caleb asked as he gently shook her back and forth.

Soon Melinda's eyes began to flutter open and finally focused on Caleb's face.

"Where am I?" She asked, still a little disoriented from the fall.

"It's alright. You are safe. Something attacked us but it is gone now." Caleb said soothingly.

Melinda shot up, causing Caleb to fall back a bit. She began examining her body with her hands. Touching every last inch of herself, as if to make sure she was real.

"Are you ok?" Caleb asked, concerned that maybe she had hit her head or something.

"Just fine." Melinda said with a smile, though Caleb couldn't help but feel that something was off about her. "Should we go home now?"

"Uh, ya. I'll shimmer you back to your apartment." Caleb said.

"Great." Melinda said jumping up.

Caleb stood up and took his girlfriends hand and shimmered them out of the forest.

They reappeared in Melinda's apartment to find Roman and Alice fast asleep on the couch, Alice resting her head on Roman's chest.

"We should be quiet, don't want to wake them." Caleb said, gesturing to his younger brother and Alice.

Melinda had other ideas. She walked up behind the sleeping pair and yelled, "boo" as loud as she could.

Alice and Roman jumped at the nose. They both looked around for a couple of seconds before realizing they had been cuddling and quickly moved away from one another.

"Morning sunshine." Melinda said with a giddy smile.

"Hey, Mel." Alice said, a little confused by her roommates behavior. "Where have you been?" Alice asked looking at how dirty she and Caleb looked, as if they had been rolling around in the dirt.

"Just hanging around." Melinda told her.

"Well I think I better be heading out. Roman how bout I give you a lift home?" Caleb said to his brother.

"Actually Melinda there was something I wanted to ask you." Roman said. "Now I know you hate this but you would be doing me a big favor. See my band has a gig at P3 tomorrow and the lead singer dropped out and I would really love if you could fill in and…"

"I would love to." Melinda said before Roman could even finish.

"Really?" Roman asked surprised. He had been sure that she would have said no or at least taken a lot longer to convince.

"Of course." Melinda beamed. "I love to sing. The sounds, the rhythms, I love it all."

"Ok great!" Roman said excitedly. "Well I will see you tomorrow then. Be there at eleven a.m. sharp."

"Ok we really should be going now though." Caleb said.

"Not without a goodbye kiss." Melinda said, walking over to Caleb and pulling him in for an extremely passionate kiss. After a few seconds she let go of her grasp, smiled and headed back to her room. Roman and Alice just stared in astonishment.

"Uh, Mel. That's my room." Alice said, noticing she was going into the wrong room.

"Right." Melinda said casually and headed to the correct bedroom.

"What the hell is going on?" Alice asked once she thought Melinda was out of earshot.

"I don't know but I intend to find out." Caleb said, his head still spinning from the kiss.

* * *

Chris had been at the Police station all night. He had been pulling a lot of all nighters at the station lately, doing research on the recent murder investigation. He was still not convinced that the recent murders had not been magical. He didn't care what Daryl or anyone else said. He knew all of those victims had been witches and their was no way that was just a coincidence.

"Halliwell, what are you still doing here?" Daryl asked as he walked out of his office.

"Just doing some research." Chris said, never once looking up from his computer.

"Are you still on this murder investigation?" Daryl asked, though he already knew the answer. "I told you Chris, we got the guy who did it. You need to give this up."

"I can't Daryl." Chris said looking up from his computer. "A demon did this and it is still out there. I can't just give up."

"Chris I am not telling you this as your friend, I am ordering you as your boss." Daryl said.

Chris sighed. He knew Daryl wasn't going to let this go. "Fine." Chris said though he didn't really mean it.

"Good. Now go home Chris." Daryl said motioning for Chris to walk ahead of him and leave. Chris did as he was told but once Daryl had driven off, Chris orbed himself back into the Police station. If Daryl was going to force him to stop his investigation, then he would just have to be more sneaky about.

He orbed himself into Daryl's office where all of the files on witnesses, victims, and suspects where kept. He quickly began searching the room for the witness files and after a few minutes he found the drawer where they were kept. He used his telekinesis to open the lock and began thumbed through the files till he found Bianca's file. He was thankful she had a unique first name because she hadn't told him her last name. He pulled out her file and found the address before returning it to its place and orbing away.

* * *

Caleb shimmered over to the Manor the second he dropped Roman back at his own apartment. The sun was already beginning to rise but he didn't care, he had to figure out what was wrong with Melinda. Even though Caleb was a demon, the book did not view him as a threat and allowed him to touch it. He began flipping through the pages trying to ID the mysterious light he and Melinda had encountered in the forest.

"Caleb what the hell are you doing here this early in the morning?" A voice said from the other side of the attic. Caleb looked up to see it was coming from Wyatt.

"I could ask you the same thing." Caleb said, relieved it wasn't Piper or Leo. "Don't you have your own apartment?"

"I worked a late shift tonight and I didn't want to wake Gwen so I decided to just crash here for the night." Wyatt explained. "What are you looking for anyways?" Wyatt asked walking over to look at the book with Caleb.

"Something attacked me and Mel tonight, Just trying to figure out what it was." Caleb said.

"Are you both okay?" Wyatt asked, in his older brother worried voice.

"Well I am, I am not so sure about Melinda." Caleb sighed.

"Does she need to be healed?" Wyatt asked, the concern growing in his voice.

"No physically she is fine, it's just…" Caleb said trailing off.

"It's just what?" Wyatt asked.

"Well we were attacked by this weird ball of light that knocked us unconscious and when we woke up, well Melinda just wasn't acting like herself." Caleb explained

"Like she had a concussion or something?" Wyatt asked, not fully understanding what Caleb meant.

"No. Not like that. She was just acting weird." Caleb said. He wasn't sure exactly how to describe it.

"Well have you figured out what it was yet?" Wyatt asked peering over the book to see Caleb was on the page about imps. Clearly he had not found it yet.

"No, this thing is too big. You really should index it or something." Caleb said with frustration.

"You say it was a small ball of light?" Wyatt asked and Caleb nodded. Wyatt then moved closer to the book, causing Caleb to step out of the way. "A small ball of light." Wyatt said a bit louder then necessary as he looked up at the ceiling. All of a sudden the pages began to flip themselves and landed on a page entitled 'Will O The Wisp.' Wyatt smiled. "Works every time."

"That's it." Caleb said pointing at the picture of the small floating lights. "Will O The Wisps are mischievous beings of light, known for leading travelers off the beaten path and possessing their bodies. The only way to banish then is my invoking their one true name, expelling them from our world forever." Caleb read. "Oh my god, I think that thing possessed Melinda. What do we do?"

"Ok don't panic." Wyatt said. "Melinda can't orb so she wont be that hard to track down. All we have to do is find her and bring her to magic school so she can't escape."

"And then what?" Caleb asked.

"And then we figure out how to get that thing out of her." Wyatt said. Sure it wasn't a great plan but it was all he could come up with at seven in the morning.

"Ok well she is probably back at her apartment." Caleb said.

"Ok you go get her and I will go talk to my mom and aunts, see if they have any ideas. Just find her and take her over to magic school. She can't get away once she is there." Wyatt said before orbing out.

"Right." Caleb said and shimmered out of the attic.

* * *

Bianca lived in an apartment building not far from where the most recent murder had occurred. Chris walked up to the front door and pressed the buzzer with the last name 'Fawkes'.

"Hello, who is it?" A voice said through the speakers.

"SFPD, I have a few more questions I would like to ask you, if you don't mind." Chris said back to the speaker.

"I already IDed the murderer and they said that was all they needed from me." The voice from the speaker said.

"I promise I just need to ask you a few more questions and then I will go." Chris said.

There was a long pause before the voice from the speakers came back. "Fine. Wait there I will come down, I don't want some creep in my apartment if this is a trick."

Chris laughed a little. She was a smart girl. Even though he was legit, their were a lot of crazies in San Francisco and it wasn't safe to let just anyone in to your home.

After a few minutes Bianca emerged out of the front door of the apartment building.

"You." Bianca said, seeing Chris' face and recognizing him from the crime scene.

"Yes, now I just have a few questions…" Chris began, but Bianca cut him off.

"Look I don't know what you think you are trying to get at here but you should leave before I call the police." Bianca threatened.

"Well actually I am the police." Chris said rather cocky. Bianca turned to go inside but Chris grabbed her arm and forced her to stop. "Listen I know you know something, please I just want to make sure who ever is behind these murders is stopped."

"They already found the guy." Bianca said, pulling her arm away from Chris' grasp. "Listen…"

"Christopher Halliwell." Chris said filling in the blank for her.

"Halliwell?" Bianca asked.

"Yes." Chris said hoping she would recognize the name and open up to him.

"Listen Christopher, I have nothing left you say so if you don't mind." Bianca said as she attempted to go back inside but Chris grabbed the door so she couldn't leave.

"Bianca please. I know you know who I am and why I am really here. Please I could really use your help." Chris pleaded.

Bianca sighed and turned back to look at Chris. "Lets say for a moment that you're right and I do know who you are, why would it make a difference. I already told you I have noting more to say. The man who murdered my friend is behind bars and now I would really like to just move on."

"Do you honestly believe there is nothing 'magical' going on here." Chris said in hushed tones so he would not be overheard by anyone passing by.

"Yes I do." Bianca said rather defiantly. "Sometimes bad things happen to good people and there is nothing magical about it." Bianca then pulled the door out of Chris' grasp and headed back inside. Chris tried to follow but the door shut too quickly. This was getting ridiculous. He would just have to try a different approach.

* * *

Wyatt orbed into his mother's restaurant. He figured if anyone would be able to help save Melinda it would be her. She had been fighting demons for years and she was always willing to share her knowledge with her children and nieces and nephews.

"Wyatt what are you doing?" Prue asked pushing him into a corner so no one else in the kitchen would see him. "You can't just orb in here. How many times have I told you that?"

"Sorry, it's an emergency." Wyatt defended. "Have you seen my mom?"

"Hang on." Prue said rolling her eyes at her oldest cousin and walking off to get her aunt.

A few seconds later Prue returned with Piper, "Wyatt, sweetie what is going on?" Piper asked in a motherly yet stern voice.

"Its Melinda, she has been possessed." Wyatt said in hushed tones so no one else in the kitchen could hear.

"She has been what?" Piper said a little louder then necessary, causing everyone in the kitchen to turn and look. "Sorry, everyone just go back to what you were doing." Piper said with a smile before turning back to her son. "What do you mean she has been possessed?" Piper asked, this time in a whisper.

"Her and Caleb were out in the woods last night and they ran into this creature and it possessed her. We think it is a Will O The Wisp but the only way to get rid of it, is to invoke its one true name which we don't know." Wyatt explained.

"Well where is she now?" Piper asked.

"I am not sure but Caleb went to go find her. He is going to bring her to magic school when he does." Wyatt explained. "She couldn't have gone that far though because she can't orb so I am sure it wont take him too long."

"Good because we need to get that thing out of her as soon as we can. We ran across one of these years ago when you guys were young. Did not end well for the host body." Piper said, the worry apparent in her voice.

"What do you mean?" Wyatt asked.

"Well if we don't get it out of her soon, it will kill Melinda and take over her body." Piper explained.

"Well how did you get it out before?" Prue asked her aunt.

"We didn't." Piper said rather solemnly. "We were working on a power of three spell to extract the wisp, but the poor girl died before we got a chance to try it."

"And you just let the thing have the body?" Prue asked, it didn't really sound like something her mother or aunts would do.

"No, we vanquished it. Once it has full control of the body, it becomes as vulnerable as the host." Piper said sadly. "We are going to need your aunts for this. Prue can you stay here and look after the restaurant?"

"You can count on me!" Prue said and skipped off to go help in the kitchen.

"Okay, lets go." Piper said taking her son's hand and Wyatt orbed the two of them out of the kitchen, completely unnoticed.

* * *

Caleb shimmered in Alice and Melinda's apartment to find that it was in shambles. There were feathers everywhere and all of the cabinets in the kitchen had been opened and emptied of all their content, which was now lying on the floor. The television had been smashed in and one of the windows was also broken. He saw Alice on the floor attempting to clean up the mess.

"What the hell happened hear?" Caleb asked as he looked around.

"Why don't you ask your _girlfriend_?" Alice said rather bitterly.

"My girlfriend?" Caleb said a little surprised. Sure Alice had seen Melinda and him kiss last night but it wasn't enough for her to suspect anything.

"Oh don't play dumb with me." Alice said picking up some of the plates from the kitchen floor. "You two are horrible liars. I have been suspicious for months and this morning pretty much confirmed it."

"Oh." Caleb nodded. "So what exactly did Melinda do?"

"Well, about thirty minutes after you and Roman left she decided she wasn't tired and thought it would be fun to dance around the apartment and destroy everything." Alice recounted.

"Its not her fault." Caleb said. "She's possessed."

"Oh she better be because other wise I am going to kill her." Alice practically screamed. Alice was a bit of a neat freak and couldn't handle such a large mess in her apartment.

"Well where is she now?" Caleb asked, noticing Melinda was not there.

"Oh she left about an hour ago. Said she wanted to explore a bit." Alice said rolling her eyes as she attempted to pick up all the feathers that Caleb could only assume had come from the ripped up couch cushions.

"And you let her leave?" Caleb yelled.

"Well sorry. I didn't realize she was possessed and she was bugging me." Alice argued.

"Well now how am I supposed to find her?" Caleb said half to Alice and half to himself.

"Well she was going to sing for Roman's band so she will probably have to head over to P3 eventually." Alice said.

"That's right!" Caleb said excitedly and shimmered away.

"Hey, you could have at least offered to help clean." Alice yelled at the ceiling, but Caleb was already far-gone.

* * *

Chris was done fooling around. He knew Bianca was a witch just like all the other victims and he knew she could help him solve this case. He wasn't keen on orbing into strangers apartments unannounced but she had left him no choice.

Chris orbed into Bianca's apartment just as she was returning from speaking to him downstairs.

"Oh my god." Bianca yelled, startled by Chris' sudden appearance.

"Listen I am really sorry but you left me no choice." Chris said.

"I am going to say this one last time. I don't care who you are or what you are but you can't just harass people like this." Bianca yelled. "I told you all I know and there is nothing more. To be perfectly honest with you I think you are just blaming this case on magic because you cant seem to wrap your head around the fact that mortals can be killers to."

"Of course I can I am a cop after all." Chris argued. "And besides all the victims were witches."

"Yes and they were all from the same coven and lived in the same are and frequented the same places making them all targets for the same killer." Bianca explained.

It didn't make perfect sense because it still seemed stranger the killer only killed witches but even Chris had to admit it was a feasible theory.

"Now if you don't mind I would really appreciate it if you left me alone or I really will call the cops." Bianca threatened.

"Ok, I am sorry I bothered you." Chris said and orbed out of the apartment.

* * *

Wyatt and Piper orbed in to Phoebe's office at the Bay Mirror. After Elise had retired, Phoebe had taken over as editor of the paper while still devoting time to write a weakly column giving advice on love.

"Hey, I told you guys no orbing in here unannounced." Phoebe said, getting up to look out her office window to make sure no one saw her nephew and sister magically appear.

"Sorry Aunt Phoebe, its an emergency." Wyatt said.

"You remember the Will O The Wisp, we battled years ago?" Piper asked and Phoebe nodded. "Well one possessed Melinda."

"Oh no." Phoebe said, her demeanor all of a sudden changing from annoyed to panicked

"Do you remember the spell we were going to use to extract the spirit?" Piper asked her sister.

"No, not off the top of my head." Phoebe said. "But maybe Paige will. She is much better at remembering this kind of stuff."

"Good idea, do you know where she is?" Piper asked. Paige was not the easiest to pin down these days. She was either off helping a charge, or at home playing housewife, or at magic school where she worked as a teacher.

"I am pretty sure she is at magic school." Phoebe told her sister. "With midterms and everything coming up she practically lives there."

"Ya Leo too." Piper said a little annoyed.

"Ok well lets go then." Wyatt said beginning to worry that with every second that passed his sister was getting closer to death.

"Wait can you leave?" Piper asked her sister.

"Oh Ya, its Sunday. They wont miss me." Phoebe said and took her sister and nephews hand and the three of them orbed off to magic school.

* * *

"Stop, just stop." Roman said to his band, who was in the middle of rehearsing one of their songs. They had been doing sound check for almost an hour now and it wasn't going so well.

"Why are we stopping?" Melinda asked, annoyed by yet another pause in her singing. "I thought that was really good!"

"Melinda, you aren't even singing the right words." Roman told her.

"Oh but my words just sound so much prettier!" Melinda said with a giddy smile.

"You know what lets just take five." Roman said to the band before pulling Melinda over to the side. "What the hell is going on with you?"

"Nothing I am perfect!" Melinda said with a twirl.

"Listen I don't know what you are on or if you hit year head last night or something but we have to go on in a few hours and you can't be acting like this." Roman scolded his friend.

"Okay, I will try to be better." Melinda assured him. "Oh look my boyfriend is here!" Melinda said excitedly, seeing Caleb shimmer in behind one of the stage curtains.

"Hey there hot stuff, ready for another make out session?" Melinda asked once she had walked over to where Caleb was.

"Yes, but first do you think I could talk to you out back for a moment." Caleb said with a smile. He was hopping he could lure her out to the back and then shimmer her to magic school without anyone seeing.

"Of course lover." Melinda said with a smile and took Caleb's hand and led him to the back of the club.

As soon as they got out back though Melinda began to run away. "I am not that stupid you slithering demon." The wisp yelled back as it made its get away.

"Dammit." Caleb cursed as he took off after his possessed girlfriend.

* * *

Piper, Phoebe and Wyatt orbed into Paige's office at magic school to find her hard at work writing her midterm for her advance magic class.

"Hey guys, sorry whatever you need I am a bit busy now so it is going to have to wait." Paige said not even looking up from her work.

"Paige this is an emergency." Piper said putting her hand on top of what Paige was writing, forcing her to stop. "Melinda has been possessed by a Will O The Wisp. Do you remember the spell we were going to use to extract one years ago?"

Paige shook her head sadly. "No, I don't."

"Well maybe you could write a new one." Wyatt suggested.

"It's not that easy, sweetie. To banish a spirit that powerful without using its name, well it takes very careful wording and planning. It takes time and that is something we just don't have right now." Piper explained.

"So what are we going to do?" Wyatt asked, real fear beginning to set in.

"Go up to the elders, maybe they will have an idea." Piper said to her son. "In the mean time we will try our best to come up with a new spell."

Wyatt nodded and orbed off, up to the elders.

"Ok guys, lets write a banishing spell." Piper said smiling at her sisters.

* * *

Caleb had chased Melinda for a few blocks now and finally had her cornered at a dead end.

"You have no way out. Melinda can't teleport which means neither can you." Caleb shouted to the wisp who was looking around for a way out.

"Fine you caught me, now what?" The wisp teased. "You can't get rid of me unless you know my name and since I am still in this body you obviously don't know it."

"Why do you want her body anyway?" Caleb asked the wisp.

"I am sick of being a floating ball of light. I want to be able to smell and feel and see." The wisp explained.

"But why her body? Why not mine or one of the countless hikers that go through the forest every day?"

"I wanted power, ultimate power. And she knows where to find it, and now I do too." The wisp sad with a wicked smile.

All the time Caleb had been questioning the wisp, it hadn't noticed that he had been moving closer and closer to it until he was an arms length away.

"Well too bad cause you aren't going to get a chance to find it." Caleb said and reached out to grab Melinda's body and shimmered the two of them back to Magic school.

* * *

"I remember the spell had something to do about casting the wisp into the astral plane." Phoebe said as she paced back and forth in her younger sister's office at magic school as she, Paige and Piper tried to remember the spell to vanquish the Will O The Wisp.

"Maybe it would help if we put a part in about calling upon or ancestors." Paige suggested. "You know if this thing is a spirit then maybe other good spirits can help defeat it."

"That's not a bad idea but will it work. I mean who's to say the spell we made before was going to work. The book says the only way to get rid of this thing is by invoking its one true name. Maybe we should put our efforts into figuring out what it is." Piper said. She was feeling so helpless and desperate at the moment. She couldn't let what happened to that poor innocent all those years ago happen to her daughter.

"But how?" Phoebe asked her sister. "Its not like we can read minds. The only person who could do that is…"

"Melinda." Piper finished her sister's thought. She was right though. Unfortunately the only person who might have been able to figure out the wisps name was currently the person being possessed by it.

All of a sudden the sisters heard a bunch of yelling coming from the library.

"What was that?" Paige asked.

"I think Caleb and Melinda are back." Piper said running off to the library, her sister's close behind.

* * *

Caleb shimmered in to the library at Magic School with Melinda. It was Sunday so the place was deserted.

"Hey let go of me." The wisp yelled, pulling away from Caleb's grasp. "That wasn't very nice."

Hearing all the commotion Piper, Phoebe and Paige ran into the library to see what it was all about.

"What is going on in here?" Piper asked looking from her daughter to the half demon.

"Nothing Mom, everything is just fine." The Wisp said with a smile, trying to impersonate Melinda.

"You are not my daughter." Piper said bitterly to the wisp.

"But I will be soon. See your precious daughter is slowly dying and soon I will be all that's left." The wisp said with an evil grin. "And there is really nothing you can do about it."

"If you don't leave her body, I swear to god I will kill you." Caleb said to the wisp.

"Ah, but then you would just be killing her and I would find another host." The wisp said.

"Then possess me instead and just let her go." Caleb said. "You know where to find whatever power you were looking for. You don't need her body anymore.

"True but why would I want to trade?" The wisp asked.

"Because she can't teleport and I can. In her body you are stuck here and there is no way out but in mine you will be able to shimmer anywhere you want to go." Caleb explained.

"Interesting. You would give up your own life for hers? Why?" The wisp mused looking Caleb up and down with a malicious smile. "You love her don't you?"

"Are you going to take the deal or not?" Caleb asked forcefully.

"The ability to go wherever I want whenever I want? You have got yourself a deal." The wisp said and suddenly a small ball of yellow light sprung forth from Melinda's chest and flew over into Caleb.

"Mom, freeze him now." Melinda yelled.

"What, no" The wisp yelled from Caleb's body but it was too late Piper had already froze him.

"Briciu, I banish you from this mortal body." Melinda shouted and reached her hand out toward Caleb as if reaching for the evil spirit.

Caleb's body unfroze and began to shake violently. After a few seconds the yellow light left Caleb's chest and dissipated into nothingness.

"What just happened?" Phoebe asked in astonishment.

"Well you couldn't freeze the wisp while it was in my body because I am a witch but Caleb isn't so he wasn't immune to it." Melinda explained

"And how did you know its name?" Paige asked her niece.

"I heard its thoughts when it was inside me." Melinda said. "Telepath, remember."

"Caleb did you know Melinda would know its name?" Phoebe asked, amazed that the half demon had risked his own life for her nieces, though she had a suspicion as to why.

"Not for certain but I was hopping she would." Caleb said.

"You saved me." Melinda said smiling up at Caleb.

"It's no big deal." Caleb said with a dorky grin.

Melinda grabbed Caleb by his shirt and pulled him close to her and kissed him gently on the lips. "Thank you."

"Um, Melinda…?" Caleb said, shocked that Melinda had kissed him in front of her family.

"Oh, don't worry about it we already know." Phoebe said smiling at her niece and Caleb.

"You do?" Melinda said in shock. She though she had done a good job at keeping their relationship a secret but apparently not.

"Sweetie, we all know. Have for a while." Piper said walking over to hug her daughter.

"All? As in everyone?" Melinda asked still surprised.

"Well not everyone…" Piper said. Her eldest son had been so busy between the engagement and long hours at work that he hadn't caught on yet.

"So Wyatt still doesn't know?" Melinda asked. She didn't have to be a telepath to know who her Mom was talking about.

"What don't I know?" A voice on the other side of the room asked. It was Wyatt returning from speaking with the elders.

"How long have you been standing there?" Melinda asked, worried at what her brother might have seen.

"Just a few seconds." Wyatt said. "What exactly don't I know?"

"That we didn't need the elders help after all because Caleb figured out a way to save Melinda." Phoebe said, sensing her niece was in need of a rescue. Melinda smiled at her in thanks.

"Really?" Wyatt asked a little stunned.

"Don't act so surprised." Caleb said a little offended by Wyatt's tone.

"Well I am glad you are ok sis." Wyatt said giving Melinda a big hug. "By the way what were the two of you doing in the forest at night anyways?"

"Nothing." Melinda said. She was glad her family all seemed to know about her and Caleb but she wasn't ready to tell Wyatt just yet.

"Well I have to get back to writing my midterm. I am glad you are ok sweetie" Paige said to her niece before walking back to her office.

"And I should probably get back to work. Do you mind?" Phoebe asked her nephew who took her hand and orbed the two of them out of magic school.

"No more wondering through the woods at night ok?" Piper said rather sternly to her daughter who just nodded. "I am glad you are okay honey." Piper said pulling her only daughter into a hug.

"Okay is a relative term." Melinda said rather grimly. Sure the demon was gone but there would always be more and on top of it she still had to figure out how she was going to tell Wyatt she was dating his best friend.

"Don't worry so much, sweetie." Piper said kissing her daughter on the head. "Now I am going to go find your father and drag his but home because he has been locked up in his office all day and hasn't even noticed all the chaos going on. I think midterms are starting to get to his head." Piper said and walked off to go find her Husband.

"So." Caleb said with a smile, pulling Melinda close to him once Piper had gone.

"So." Melinda said smiling back.

"Quite an eventful day." Caleb laughed.

"Thank you for saving me." Melinda said smiling up at her boyfriend.

"Don't mention it." Caleb said.

"No, but you could have been killed. You couldn't have known I would know the wisps name."

"I had faith in you." Caleb said and kissed Melinda on the forehead before pulling her in closer so her head lay on his chest.

"What are we going to do about Wyatt?" Melinda asked after a few seconds.

"I think there has been enough excitement for one day. Maybe we wait a little bit to tell him." Caleb suggested.

"Ya I guess you are right." Melinda sighed. "You should probably take me home."

"Actually I think for your safety you should probably sleep at my place tonight." Caleb said.

"Why?" Melinda asked a little confused. "The wisp is gone, what other possible danger could there be?"

"Alice." Caleb said with a laugh and shimmered the two of the out of magic school.

* * *

Alice walked up to the back door of P3 to find Roman sitting on the steps looking rather bummed.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Roman asked as he saw Alice approaching.

"I came to see you play but the line out front was too long so I decided to try and get in around back." Alice said, sitting down next to Roman on the step. "Why do you look so blue? Isn't your band going on soon?"

"Melinda ran off and now we have no one to sing lead." Roman explained.

"Oh ya, she got possessed by some demon thing." Alice said.

"What? Why am I the last to know these things? Is she ok?"

"Ya she is fine now, though she destroyed are apartment so I may still kill her. Caleb just called to let me know she was okay and was going to be staying over at his place for the night." Alice said.

"Are they dating or something?" Roman asked. He had been suspicious about the two for a while but the past few hours made it pretty obvious.

"Ya I think so." Alice laughed. "Can you imagine?"

"What do you mean?" Roman asked.

"Well they have just known each other forever, they are like siblings, you know it would be like you and me dating." Alice explained.

"Ya, I guess." Roman said with a sigh. "I don't know what I am going to do about a lead singer now, it would take too much time to go get Mel."

"Well I could do it." Alice offered.

"You?" Roman asked a little surprised.

"Ya, I know all your songs and I mean I don't have as great a voice as Mel but my shower head never seems to complain." Alice said with a smile.

"Ok, why not!" Roman said, standing up from the step and extending his arm to help Alice up. "Lets do this!"

* * *

Chris had gone back to the station after speaking with Bianca and given over all his research on the murder investigation to Daryl. He still did not feel 100% secure in letting it go, but there was not much else he could do. He had exhausted all his resources both magical and mortal and had come up with nothing. The murders also seemed to have stopped once the suspected murderer had been locked away, so at least for now Chris was going to let it go.

After work he orbed himself back over to Bianca's apartment building. He was not exactly sure what compelled him to go back but he couldn't help but feel drawn to her somehow. Chris pressed the buzzer labeled "Fawkes" and waited a few seconds before a voice on the other side asked who was there.

"It's me Chris, from earlier." Chris said into the intercom.

"What do you want now?" Bianca's voice said rather annoyed.

"Look I just wanted to apologize. You were right, sometimes things just happen and there is no magical explanation." Chris apologized through the speaker. Chris waited a few seconds but Bianca did not respond. "Listen let me make it up to you, how about I take you out for dinner? I don't know about you but I am starving."

There was another long pause before Bianca answered. "Are you asking me out?"

"Just let me take you to dinner. It doesn't have to mean anything. Just me saying sorry for harassing you." Chris said.

"Fine, I will be right down." Bianca agreed.

Chris smiled, maybe this investigations waste a complete waste after all.

Bianca smiled a wicked grin. She grabbed her purse and put her jacket on, concealing her tattoo of a small red Phoenix that was right under her wrist, and left to meet Chris downstairs.


	4. Imaginary Wyatt

**Imaginary Wyatt**

"Wyatt don't you think you are overreacting just a bit?" Melinda asked as Wyatt swung Excalibur at her feet. She jumped causing him to miss her and swung her sword around at his head but he ducked and moved out of the way.

"No I don't." Wyatt said to her as the two continued their sword fight. "You lied to me."

"I didn't lie per say I just didn't tell you the truth." Melinda said as Wyatt made a jab at her chest but she skillfully turned to the side to avoid it. "It not like it's even that big of a deal."

"Of course it's a big deal. It's a very big deal." Wyatt said fencing her into a corner.

"Well sorry I was just worried you would overreact and obviously I was right." Melinda said trying to gain back the upper hand but failing miserably.

"It's not just that though. You told everyone else before you told me, I just thought we had a better relationship then that." Wyatt said as he went in for the final blow but Melinda ducked under his arm and got away.

"We do. You know you are my favorite brother." Melinda told him, though it wasn't exactly true because she told Chris the same thing all the time and Wyatt knew it.

"Look all I am saying is I wish you hadn't waited this long to tell me." Wyatt said as he advanced on his sister. "And you didn't even apologize."

"I said I was sorry." Melinda said putting her sword up in front of her to defend against Wyatt's attack.

"When?" Wyatt asked as he fought his sister into another corner.

"Like two minutes ago when I said 'sorry'." Melinda told him as if it should have been obvious that was what she was talking about.

"That doesn't count. I meant a sincere apology." Wyatt said as he disarmed his sister and help Excalibur to her throat.

"Fine. I am sorry I didn't tell you about my dreams, but honestly I don't see why you care so much."

"I care because you are my sister and these dreams are obviously supernatural. I just thought you would have the decency to fill me in." Wyatt said.

"Well I am sorry but you know now. Can we be done training for the day? I have to head over to Magic School for that telepathy lesson." Melinda asked pushing Excalibur away from her neck.

"Sure." Wyatt said to his sister. He had been helping her train to fight for years now. The two of them had always been the best fighters in the group. Wyatt felt he needed to be the best fighter because he was the oldest and strongest and needed to protect everyone and Melinda felt she needed to be the best fighter because she didn't have any actives powers and couldn't teleport herself and didn't want the rest of her family to feel like they needed to protect her. "Do you need a lift?" Wyatt asked as he followed his sister up the stairs of the basement and into the Kitchen of the Manor.

"No, it's cool I'll just summon a door." Melinda said as she headed up to the attic. "See you later."

Wyatt decided since he was already at his parents' house, that he would wash up in his old bedroom, which was now a gym. He found some extra clothes that he left in the closet for just such an occasion before heading back down to the kitchen to find something to eat.

When he got there he found his brother rummaging through the fridge and humming.

"Hey there songbird" Wyatt said startling Chris who dropped the carton of milk he was holding causing it to spill everywhere. "Jumpy are we?"

"What are you doing here Wyatt?" Chris asked as he began to clean up the spilt milk.

"I could ask you the same thing?" Wyatt said, pushing pass Chris and grabbing a container full of his mom's lasagna from the fridge.

"Hey I was going to eat that" Chris said annoyed that his older brother always took his stuff.

"Don't pout, there is enough to share" Wyatt said as he popped the container in the microwave. "So what's with the humming? You planning on joining an a Capella group? Or more likely it is because you are getting some."

"If you must know I met someone, but we have only been on one date so get your mind out of the gutter."

"Really? And who is this mysterious woman?" Wyatt asked, genuinely intrigued. Chris had dated a lot over the years but no one that had ever really stuck and recently he had seemed to be closed off to the idea of dating all together.

"I met her at work" Chris said, it was not a complete lie.

"Is she a detective?" Wyatt asked as he took the lasagna out of the microwave and split it onto two plates.

"Not exactly" Chris said taking his share of the lasagna over to the kitchen table, trying to avoid eye contact with his brother. "She was a witness of a murder case."

Wyatt almost chocked on the piece of lasagna in his mouth. "You're joking right?"

"It's not like it's so easy to meet people these days. You got lucky with Gwen but its not like there is an online site that caters to Witches."

"But isn't that against the rules, dating a witness I mean?" Wyatt asked eyeing his brother.

"We aren't dating, we just went on a date. And as I recall mom said Aunt Prue dated a detective and they must have been witnesses to loads of cases."

"I suppose." Wyatt said as he finished his last bite of lasagna and brought his plate over to the sink.

"Besides it was only one date" Chris said but when he turned to look up at his brother, he was gone, his plate smashed into pieces on the ground.

* * *

Melinda walked down the endless hallway of Magic School till she reached the classroom she was looking for. She had agreed, mostly to make her parents stop nagging her, to take lessons on how to control her newfound power.

Telepathy was a rare power so there was no introductory class she could take. Instead one of the professors, who was also a telepath and the only one on staff, had agreed to be here tutor.

Melinda stopped when she found classroom 208 and opened the door to find a man in his early forties sitting on the desk reading playing with a small wooden box in his hands. He turned when he heard Melinda come in.

"Are you professor Shelton?" Melinda asked as she entered the room.

"Please call me Zachary, everybody does."

"Zachary" Melinda said testing out how it sounded. She did not like the idea of calling a professor by their first name. Growing up as the head master's daughter, she had always felt the need to be respectful to all of the teachers at Magic School and calling them by their first name was not part of that.

"I am so glad you have agreed to these lessons Melinda. Telepathy can be a wonderful power if you know how to use it but also very dangerous. I must say in my youth I got into quit a bit of trouble because of it. It was your parents actually that helped me out."

"They did?" Melinda was not actually surprised. Her parents and aunts had helped out a good majority of the magical community at this point.

"I was a bit of a rebel back then. Conjured up a horseman to cut professors heads off." At the shocked look on Melinda's face, Zachary quickly added, "Oh but none of them died. That's the magic of the school at work for you."

"How could you conjure things if you're only a telepath?" Melinda asked, genuinely intrigued.

"We will get there. First we should do a few warm up exercises."

Melinda groaned to herself. Now she remembered why she had been so reluctant to be tutored in telepathy, studying magic was hard and tiresome and often and painfully slow process.

* * *

It did not take long for Chris to assemble the masses. Well assemble everyone who was available, which right now was Caleb, Henry, Alice and Roman. He didn't bother calling his parents or aunts; no need to worry them yet and the same went for contacting

Gwen. Prue has been too caught up at the restaurant to leave and she couldn't ask Piper for a pass since it would look suspicious and Melinda was off at Magic School and Chris hadn't been able to reach her. He was not too pleased to be short handed but it would have to do.

"So he just disappeared out of thin air?" Caleb asked as he examined the area where Wyatt had vanished.

"Like I said one second he was there and then the next he was just gone" Chris explained for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Maybe he just orbed out to play a trick on you" Alice suggested though there was not much conviction in her voice.

"He wouldn't have stayed away so long. He would know I would worry." Chris said and he knew it was true.

"Well Caleb and I can go poke around in the underworld see what we can find" Henry suggested.

"And Roman and I can go check out his apartment and the hospital maybe he showed up there or there is some clue as to where he has gone" Alice said.

"I guess I will check the book, though I don't even know what to look for. This has got to be one of the strangest things that has ever happened" Chris said with a sigh.

"Ya and that's saying something around here" Caleb said.

"Well we might as well get to it. Meet back here if you find anything" Chris said and with that they all went there separate ways.

* * *

Melinda tried her best to shut the voices out but it was overwhelming. She could feel herself beginning to lose consciousness.

"Stop" she screamed and the voices quickly subsided.

"Are you even trying to shut the voices out?" Zachary asked. He was sitting on the desk holding the small wooden box he was playing with before.

"Yes" Melinda retorted. "Can't we try this out in the real world. There are too many voices in that box, even Fisherman's Wharf isn't this noisy."

"You have to learn to control your powers even in the most extreme circumstances."

"Well I doubt a demon is going to open a box full of voices in order to attack me" Melinda knew Zachary was only trying to help her but this exercise was beginning to frustrate her. The box, which he had called the Pyxis, held hundred if not thousands of voices in side and hearing them all at once inside her head was starting to take a toll on her temper. "Perhaps we could just try something else for a bit, like that conjuring thing you told me about. How does that work?"

"You're not going to let that go are you?" Zachary said with a smile as he slipped the Pyxis back in his bag. "Some telepaths have the ability to tap into others powers. I was able to conjure the horseman because I tapped into the powers of a student who was a conjurer."

"So you can use any power you want?" Melinda asked trying to hide the excitement in her voice.

"Yes, but you shouldn't. Its wrong to use others powers. And besides not every telepath can do it."

"So if I wanted to conjure up an object. I would just have to find a conjurer to tap into their powers?" Melinda knew she had crossed some kind of unspoken boundary but she didn't care. She didn't even know what had possessed her to ask.

"I think that will be all for today" Zachary said as he began to pack up his things.

Melinda thought about apologizing but an idea was forming in the back of her head and she didn't feel she had time to waste. She thanked Zachary for the lesson and raced out of the room, determined to conjure the stone.

* * *

Roman and Alice had stopped at the Hospital where Wyatt worked but had found nothing strange or suspicious there. They decided to head to Wyatt's apartment next, which they were relieved to find was empty. Neither of them was in any mood to explain to Gwen that her fiancé was missing.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Roman asked as he rummaged through Wyatt and Gwen's bedroom.

"Anything that would give us a clue to where Wyatt disappeared to." Alice said as she went through the drawers in the bathroom.

"Well that's not broad" Roman said mostly to himself. "I don't think there is anything here." Roman said giving up his search in the bedroom and walking to the bathroom to join Alice.

"No I guess your right. Maybe we should just head back." Alice said as she moved to leave the bathroom. She tripped on her way on a towel that had fallen to the floor in her search. Roman reached out to grab her just in time.

Before either of them knew what was happening, they found themselves in a deep passionate kiss.

"What the hell is going on?" came an angry voice, causing Alice and Roman to pull away from each other quickly. It was Gwen and she did not look very pleased to see either of them.

"We can explain" Alice said though she did not think even she understood what had just happened.

"Wyatt has disappeared" Roman blurted out.

"What does that have to do with you breaking into my apartment and making out in my bathroom?" The pair blushed but luckily Gwen did not wait for an answer. "Where is Chris?"

"At the manor, he is looking through the book to see if he can find any leads and Hank and Caleb went to the underworld to look around" Alice said.

"Ok well lets go to the Manor. I doubt Wyatt is hiding in the shower" Gwen said before turning to leave.

Roman and Alice stared at each other awkwardly for a moment. It was apparent that whatever had just happened was not going to be discussed, at least not right now.

"Are you guys coming?" Gwen yelled from the other room.

"We should go." Roman said. Alice just nodded and the two headed out of the bathroom to Gwen.

* * *

Caleb had shimmered himself and Henry to the underworld since orbing in might raise some unwanted attention.

"So where exactly do you pan on starting?" Caleb asked. The underworld was a big place and they had virtually nothing to go on.

"I was hopping you would have an idea." Henry confessed.

"Me?" Caleb asked in surprise

"Well you are a demon." Henry said shyly. He knew how much Caleb hated this fact.

"I know a few demons down here who might have heard something. I guess we can start there." Caleb sighed before beginning to walk, Henry followed close behind.

After walking for several minutes, Caleb came to a halt, causing Henry to walk right into him.

"What gives?" Henry asked agitated.

"Shh" Caleb said and drew himself and Henry up against the wall of the cavern they were walking through so they wouldn't be seen.

Henry turned his attention to what had caused Caleb to stop so abruptly. A mere twenty feet away was the Warlock who had kidnapped Parker having a heated discussion with another demon.

"We are running out of time." The warlock yelled.

"My liege we can not rush these things." coward the demon.

"I must have the stone by the coronation or all of our work will be for nothing." The warlock said, seething with anger and frustration.

"And you will have it my liege." The demon said trying to appease the warlock.

"She is the only one who can help return me to my full power. Without her I have no chance at becoming the source."

"We are trying our best my liege." The demon pleaded.

"Well try harder. So far you have done nothing but fail me. Perhaps if you had kidnapped the correct girl in the first place we would not be in this predicament." The warlock said growing angrier by the second.

"An unfortunate set back my liege but now we are certain that Melinda Halliwell is in fact the one we have been looking for."

Caleb had gone completely stiff next to Henry at hearing Melinda's name. Melinda had made him promise not to tell anyone about the prophecy, even though he thought it was unwise to keep the rest of the Halliwells out of the loop.

Caleb couldn't take it anymore, without thinking he grabbed Henry's hand and shimmered the two of them out of the underworld.

* * *

"Mel what are we doing?" Penny, the youngest of the Halliwells asked her older cousin as she led her to an empty classroom in Magic School.

"I need your help with something" Melinda said shutting the classroom door behind her.

"Demon related something?" Penny asked with some excitement in her voice. Being the youngest, she was rarely allowed to help out when it came to fighting demons.

"Sort of" Melinda said walking over to her cousin so they were only a few feet apart. "You can conjure anything with your powers right?"

"Ya" Penny answered a little confused at where her cousin was going with this.

"What about something you saw in a dream? Could you conjure that?"

"No, I can't conjure things that don't exist." Penny explained. "Everything has to come from somewhere."

"What if it did exist though, the thing from your dream, would it work then?" Melinda asked trying to hide the eagerness in her voice.

"I suppose" Penny said. "Mel what is this all about?"

"I need your help conjuring something." Melinda explained.

"Ok what is it?" Penny asked.

"I can't tell you."

"How am I suppose to conjure it then?"

"I am going to use my telepathy powers to tap into your conjuring powers. I just need to know what triggers your power" Melinda said, trying to sound casual about it, as if this was not a big deal at all.

"I don't know Mel, this doesn't feel like a good idea." Penny said and began to head for the door.

"Wait" Melinda cried and grabbed her cousin firmly by the wrist.

As soon as Melinda made contact with the other girl she felt the world around her begin to slip away.

She found herself in the kitchen of the Manor only everything was a dingy grey color as if she had been transported into an old silent film.

A young girl no more than six, who Melinda instantly recognized a Penny, came running into the kitchen with a doll squeezed against her chest.

"Mommy, mommy look!" young Penny exclaimed holding the doll out to show Phoebe who was sitting at the kitchen table talking to Piper. "I conjured it all by myself!"

"Good job sweetie!" Phoebe exclaimed as she picked her daughter up and placed her on her lap, kissing the top of her head.

"I did just like you said, I closed my eyes and pictured the doll and then I wished really hard that it was in my hand and it just appeared!" Penny explained and she hugged the doll close to her chest.

Melinda saw the scene before her start to melt away and as quickly as the vision had come, it was gone. Melinda found herself back in the classroom at Magic School. She did not get a chance to process what had just happened however because when she looked around for her cousin, she found she was lying on the floor unconscious.

"Shit" Melinda said and she fell to the ground next to Penny and began to shake her. "Come on Penny wake up."

* * *

Henry and Caleb reappeared in the attic of the Manor to find Chris still flipping through the book. Alice, Roman and Gwen were all there as well stirring up some basic vanquishing potions.

"Hey, you guys find anything?" Chris asked looking up from the book when he heard Caleb and Henry shimmer in.

"Not exactly" Henry began but Caleb shot him a look that said "not right now" and he quickly shut up.

"You guys find anything?" Caleb asked, though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

"No" Chris said slamming the Book of Shadows shut. "Its like he just disappeared with out a trace. I mean where the hell could he be?"

"The better question is when the hell have I been" A voice said from the doorway.

"Wyatt! Oh thank god!" Gwen said with relief as she ran to her fiancé and through her arms around him.

"What the hell happened to you?" Chris asked, more relief in his voice than anger.

"Mom and aunt Paige used a spell in the past to communicate with a younger me but it back fired and summoned me there instead." Wyatt explained. "I tried to have them send me back to exactly after I left, but judging from this warm welcome it obviously didn't work."

"You were in the past?" Chris asked, of all the things he thought had happened to his brother, being summoned to the past was not one of them.

"Ya, I will tell you all about it later but right now I would really like to go home and get some sleep. Time travel takes a lot out of you." Wyatt said grasping Gwen's hand. He was just about to orb out when he heard the familiar sound of his sister in his head. She sounded distressed and was calling out for help. He glanced over at Henry and Chris who had both obviously heard it too.

"Hey, what is it?" Gwen asked, noticing Wyatt tensing up beside her. Since she was not a whitelighter she could not here Melinda's cry for help.

"Melinda's in trouble" Wyatt said before orbing out without another word.

"Crap. He always does this." Chris said annoyed with his brother's habit of acting first and thinking later. "I am going to go see what's going on, Henry you stay here that way we can reach you guys if we need back up."

"Wait. I am coming too." Caleb said, the panic in his voice evident.

"No just stay here. Keep working on those vanquishing potions, maybe we will need them after all."

"Chris, if Melinda is in trouble I want to come and help." Caleb said defiantly.

"Look I know your in love with my sister and you guys are dating and all but the more time we waste standing here arguing the less time I have to go help her. Now will you please just stay here?" Chris said, harsher than he needed to.

Caleb was taken aback by Chris' words and he did not have a chance to reply because Chris orbed out of the attic, not waiting for a response.

"Does everybody know?" Caleb asked. He knew that the sisters and Leo knew and he had a feeling that most of the Halliwells, Alice and his own siblings knew, but he was pretty sure Chris and Wyatt were still in the dark.

"Basically" Gwen said putting a sympathetic hand on Caleb's shoulder. "Except Wyatt. Somehow he still doesn't know."

* * *

Wyatt and Chris orbed into an empty classroom at Magic School to find their sister hunched over the unconscious body of their youngest cousin, Penny.

"What the hell happened?" Wyatt asked as he dropped to his knees and attempted to heal Penny.

"We were just talking and then she fainted." Melinda explained trying to keep her voice calm but failing.

"What were you guys doing alone in here anyway?" Chris asked his sister suspiciously but Melinda did not have a chance to answer because at that moment Penny began to stir.

"Oh thank god." Melinda exclaimed and she helped her cousin sit up. "Are you okay?"

"Ya" Penny said a little dazed. "What happened?"

"You fainted." Melinda explained.

"Do you remember what you were doing in here?" Chris asked, knowing something strange was going on.

Penny thought for a few seconds before speaking. "Melinda said she needed my help with something."

Melinda retracted from her cousin a bit and turned to face away from her brothers' glares.

"Help with what?" Wyatt asked, beginning to grow suspicious as well.

Melinda didn't respond.

"Penny why don't you head back to class, I am sure your teachers are wondering where you are by now." Wyatt said not taking his eyes off Melinda.

Penny looked from Melinda to Wyatt to Chris. She knew that what Wyatt really meant was "Penny please leave so we can yell at Melinda" and she had no desire to get in the middle of their sibling feud. She gathered herself up; only stumbling once and quickly left the room.

Once Wyatt was sure Penny was out of earshot he spoke. "You had better explain yourself, and fast."

* * *

Alice and Roman sat next to each other on Aunt Pearls couch. Neither one of them had spoken since the incident.

Roman finally decided he couldn't take it anymore. "Are we going to talk about what happened back there?"

Alice was a bit taken aback by his bluntness. It took her a few seconds to find her voice. "Talk about what?"

"We kissed! Where did that come from?" Roman said as if it was obvious.

"I don't know" Alice said turning to look at Roman, she wasn't lying either. Sure she had always found Roman attractive but he was one of her best friends, a romantic relationship was out of the question. "I'm sorry I just got caught up in the moment, it won't happen again."

Roman opened his mouth to respond but then thought better of it. If Alice was going to act like their kiss meant nothing, than so would he. Though he knew deep down he did not really feel that way. Something strange had happened when he kissed Alice, it felt like electricity had been moving between them and it felt so right like they should have been doing this all along. But if she was going to ignore all that then he wasn't going to waste his time.

On the other side of the attic, Henry and Caleb were in the midst of their own heated discussion.

"We need to tell them what we saw." Henry insisted in a hushed voice so he would not be overheard.

"I already told you we will but not yet." Caleb explained a little annoyed.

"Why not?" Henry asked, his voice a little louder than he had intended.

"Melinda told me not to tell anyone" Caleb said.

"What do you mean? You guys knew this warlock was after her and you didn't say anything?" Henry could not believe how stupid his younger cousin could be sometimes.

Caleb quickly filled Henry in on the prophecy and how the seer had claimed the warlock thought Melinda was the girl from it.

"And you guys didn't think this may be something you would want to tell the rest of us?" Henry asked furious now at not only Melinda but Caleb too.

"In retrospect it was stupid yes, but Melinda was dead set on not telling anyone." Caleb said trying to defend himself.

"But why?" Henry asked confused why his cousin would want to hide this.

"I don't know but it didn't seem like that big of a deal so I let it go, now obviously I see I was wrong." Caleb said

"You think? Well we have to tell someone about this before Melinda gets herself killed."

Caleb knew Henry was right. Things like this weren't something you played around with.

"Just let me talk to Melinda first. Then we can tell everyone." Caleb consented.

"Fine, but tell her right away. We don't have time to waste."

* * *

"What the hell were you thinking?" Wyatt yelled at his sister as he paced the length of the classroom. "You could have seriously injured or even killed Penny, magic is not something to play around with."

"I'm sorry. How many times do I have to say it?" Melinda felt defeated. She sat in one of the desks in the front row of the classroom as her brothers grilled her on her lack of judgment and poor behavior. She had told them what had happened, leaving out the part about the stone and the weird vision and claiming she merely wanted to test the limits of her new powers.

"What were you trying to conjure anyways?" Chris asked in a voice much calmer than Wyatt's. He was usually the kinder one when it came to these sorts of things.

"I already told you I was just testing out my powers. I didn't know it would go so wrong." Melinda lied and her brothers could tell.

"Do you think we are stupid?" Wyatt said stopping to look right at his sister. "You have been acting weird lately. Is this about the dreams?"

Melinda knew her brother was going to find out the truth if he kept going down this path so she did the only thing she could think of to derail him from his current pursuit. "I am dating Caleb."

"What?" Wyatt practically screamed. Chris just stared from his sister to his brother in complete shock. Of course he knew about Melinda and Caleb, everyone except Wyatt did but he could not believe she had just blurted it out to him.

"That's why I have been acting weird lately. I didn't want you to know because I thought you would overreact." It was not a complete lie, though it definitely was not the cause of her strange behavior lately, at least not the only cause. Melinda hopped this would derail Wyatt from continuing to pry on her search for the stone, at least for a little while.

"How long has this been going on?" Wyatt asked completely taken a back. Melinda was right; any thoughts on her indiscretions from earlier that day were completely gone.

"Almost four months" Melinda answered meekly.

"And you are just now telling me?" Wyatt practically screamed.

"Can we deal with this later, I think we have bigger issues." Chris said, seeing exactly what Melinda was trying to do.

"You knew about this didn't you?" Wyatt said turning to his brother.

"That is besides the point." Chris said avoiding his question. He turned his attention to Melinda. "Mel if this is about the dreams you need to tell us. We are your brothers, we want to help you but we can't if you don't tell us what's wrong."

"Like I said I was just testing out my powers, nothing more. I'm really sorry I shouldn't have gotten Penny involved."

Chris knew she was lying but he figured he was not going to get any more information out of her, at least not right now. "Fine, well we better get back before everyone worries where we have run off too."

"I'll go grab my stuff" Melinda said sounding rather defeated, even though she had won this round. She headed out of the classroom leaving her two brothers alone.

"You going to be okay bro?" Chris asked turning to see Wyatt staring off at a spot in the back of the classroom.

"Just been a crazy day, a lot to process." Wyatt sighed.

"I wouldn't worry about Melinda so much. She may be small but she is tough and her dating Caleb isn't the worst thing in the world is it?" Chris asked, he was actually surprised how calm his brother was being about all this. He had thought when Wyatt finally found out about Melinda and Caleb he would have thrown a fit, but here he was just staring off in to space completely calm. The whole thing worried Chris a little.

"It's not just that Chris. I didn't want to say it in front of the others because I didn't want to worry them but something strange happened when I was in the past. Mom and Aunt Paige summoned me because they thought younger me was having some social development issues."

Chris tried to suppress a laugh. Wyatt just glared at him.

"Anyways it turns out there was a demon that was trying to corrupt me and turn me evil, which he was able to do though Dad was able to reverse the change." Wyatt explained.

"Ya that is weird. But your all back to normal now right? So no harm no fowl. Wouldn't be the first time one of us has had a little trip to the dark side." Chris said, he wasn't quit sure what his brother was so worried about, if he had a dollar for every time one of them was turned evil he would be a rich man.

"It wasn't just that. They kept saying how they had worked so hard to change the future once before and how they didn't want to do it again."

"Why would they be worried about changing the future again? That would mean it was already changed once." Chris said confused, though something in the very back of his mind flickered with recognition at what his brother was saying.

"I don't know, but there is clearly something they have been hiding from us, and I plan on finding out what it is."

* * *

"So Wyatt knows?" Caleb asked his girlfriend a little shocked that he was still alive if what she was saying was true.

After Chris and Wyatt had returned from Magic School with Melinda, everyone decided to go their own separate ways after such a crazy day.

Caleb did not even suspect that Wyatt knew until Melinda had told him back at his apartment.

"Ya" Melinda said distracted.

"And he is okay with it?" Caleb asked a little surprised at how anticlimactic it had all been.

"I mean I don't think he is particularly happy about it but I wouldn't worry about him coming after you either." Melinda said still sounding uninterested in the whole conversation. It was clear to Caleb that her mind was somewhere else.

"Are you okay?" Caleb asked sitting down next to his girlfriend on the bed and turning her to face him.

"Ya, why wouldn't I be." Melinda said though her voice lacked conviction.

"I think we need to tell your brothers and parents about the prophecy."

Melinda was completely taken aback, that was not what she was expecting him to say. "Why? I already told you it's probably nothing. We will just get them all worried."

"Something happened today when I was in the underworld with Henry looking for Wyatt." Caleb paused; he wasn't sure exactly how to tell someone that they overheard a warlock plotting to kidnap them. "We ran across that warlock who kidnapped Parker, he was talking about using you for something, he specifically used your name."

Melinda was silent. It wasn't that she was scared, she had been facing demons and warlocks her whole life, but something about this whole situations just felt different. Other demons and warlocks had threatened her family before but she got this weird feeling that if she didn't do what Jonathan asked she would live to regret it. "Are you sure it was my name?"

"Yes." Caleb practically screamed. He couldn't believe how lightly she was taking all this. "Listen if you won't tell your family I will."

"No, sorry. You're right. We should tell them." Melinda said.

"Really?" Caleb asked surprised.

"Ya. But not tonight, we can go tell them tomorrow." Melinda agreed though she had no intention of following through with her promise. "Now can we please go to bed, I am exhausted." Melinda said as she curling up on what was now her side on his bed.

"Ya." Caleb said with a smile as he went to join her on his side of the bed before turning the lights out.

Melinda couldn't sleep though. She lay awake the whole night thinking of a way out of telling her family about the prophecy.

* * *

"You summoned me." Bianca said as she stood before the warlock in the underworld.

"I have a job for you. A final job if you will. Do this and I will return what was taken from you and we can go our separate ways" The warlock explained.

"Be done with you forever Jonathan, how tempting. What is it you want me to do?" Bianca asked, intrigued by the proposition.

"You're going to kidnap a witch for me."


	5. Rise Of The Phoenix

**Rise Of The Phoenix**

"Turns out the demon had been raising these creatures to build some kind of army. So Wyatt and I go storming into the lair and just break every egg we can find but of course this doesn't go unnoticed by the demon and I kid you not I thought we were both going be goners over a few broken dragon eggs." Chris said animatedly. He sat across from Bianca at a candle lit table at a small restaurant his Mom had suggested.

"So then what happened?" Bianca asked, genuinely intrigued.

"Luckily reinforcement came and Caleb was able to kill the demon before he could kill us." Chris was so glad to finally have someone outside of his family he could talk to about this stuff. Sure he had other friends in the magical community but that's all they were, friends. Bianca was not a friend. Even though they had only been seeing each other for three weeks, Chris felt like he had known her his whole life.

"There sure are a lot of you aren't there." Bianca exclaimed. It was true, besides Chris' two siblings and six cousins there was also Caleb, Gwen, Arianna, Alice and Roman for a grand total of fourteen, not to mention his parents and aunts and uncles and Billy, Derek and Eva. All together that was a lot of people to keep track of.

"Ya. You have any family in the city?" Now that Chris thought about it, Bianca never mentioned her family to him before.

"I never knew my dad and my mom died a few years back. I have a younger brother but he is away right now." Bianca said.

"I'm sorry" Chris said and he genuinely was. Growing up with such a large and close family it was hard to imagine being alone. "Well you should come meet my family some time. We are having this big family gathering tomorrow, I am sure they won't mind if I bring you."

"I don't know." Bianca hesitated.

"Come on it will be fun. Besides I am pretty sure my siblings don't believe you are real so if you don't come it will only further their theory."

Bianca thought about it for a moment. "Sure why not."

* * *

"I promise I will tell them it just hasn't been the right time." Melinda told her boyfriend and she rummaged through his closet for a shirt to sleep in.

"It has been two weeks since we learned about the prophecy. There must have been some point in which you could have told them." Melinda had promised Caleb she was going to tell her family about the prophecy but so far she had not and he was beginning to become frustrated with her.

"It's not something you just blurt out at the dinner table. Besides they have all been super busy lately, I have barely seen them." Melinda explained grabbing one of Caleb's oversized shirts and slipping it on before climbing into bed next to him.

"That is bull shit and you know it."

"Honest. Wyatt has been super busy at the hospital lately and besides I think he is avoiding me and Chris has been with that new girl he is seeing almost every night this week and its almost midterms at Magic School so my Dad has been swamped and my mom is super busy with the club and the restaurant." Melinda explained.

"What about the rest of your family? Like your aunts?" Caleb asked. He knew she was just making excuses. If she told any of her family what was going on they would have dropped what ever they were doing to help her. He didn't know why but for some reason she was avoiding telling them.

"Look I promise I will tell them. Besides the warlock hasn't attacked since my birthday, maybe this has all blown over. We shouldn't get everyone worried for nothing." Melinda said opening up a book that she had left on the nightstand and began to read it.

It was clear she was done having this conversation, but Caleb was not. "Tomorrow. You will tell them tomorrow at dinner or I will."

"Are you threatening me now?" Melinda asked peering over her book to look at him.

"I can't believe I am saying this but yes. If you do not tell your family tomorrow night than I will. We could have caught this guy by now and I don't know why you are so dead set against telling your family."

"Because I don't want to worry them over nothing." Melinda explained, though it was a total lie. She wanted to tell them all so badly but she was scared of the repercussions. On top of it all she was no closer to finding the stone.

"That is a lie and you know it." Caleb practically yelled. "Please just tell me what's going on inside that head of yours. I am not the one who is a telepath here, I can't read your mind." Caleb said in a much calmer voice. "I love you and I just want to help you."

"You what?" Melinda asked dropping her book on her lap.

"I want to help you." Caleb repeated.

"No the thing you said before that."

"What? That I love you?" Caleb said with a smile. He realized why Melinda was so shocked by his words, even though they had been dating for a little over four months now, neither of them had said the "L" word.

Melinda just stared at him and nodded.

Caleb laughed, this was not exactly the reaction he was expecting but her shocked expression was rather cute. "Of course I love you, we are basically living together, I think we are at the point where we can call a spade a spade."

"We are not living together." Melinda said in protest.

"When was the last time you slept in your own bed?" Caleb asked.

Melinda thought about it for a second but she couldn't remember. Since they were now out about their relationship they no longer had to sneak around, which meant they had been spending even more time together, if that was possible, including her sleeping over at his place most nights.

Melinda was at a complete loss of words, a rare occasion Caleb noted.

"You don't have to say it back if you don't want to." Caleb tried to reassure her though he was kind of hurt that he had just put his feelings out on the table and she was not immediately reciprocating.

Melinda just continued to stare at him in silence.

"You know if I knew this was all it took to shut you up I may have said it sooner." Caleb joked trying to lighten the mood.

"Caleb Blackwood you are the most infuriating man I have ever met. You can't just spring something like this on a girl out of the blue." Melinda finally said.

"I didn't realize there was a right and wrong time to tell someone you loved them." Caleb said a little annoyed. This was definitely not the reaction he was expecting.

"Ya well you know what, I love you too. So there." Melinda said as if it was an insult, but the small smirk on her face gave her away.

Caleb smiled. She was teasing him and he had played right into her hands. "Well I love you more, so take that Halliwell."

"Not possible." Melinda grinned.

"Oh really?" Caleb asked rolling over so he was on top of her.

"Really." Melinda smiled up at him.

"Well we will just see about that." Caleb said with a devilish grin before pressing his lips down hard against Melinda's

* * *

"Thanks again for helping me. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to take physics as an gen ed." Roman said as he sat next to Alice at the kitchen table in the apartment Alice shared with Melinda.

Since their kiss two weeks ago neither of them had brought it up and had proceeded to act as if nothing had happened. Of course they couldn't avoid the fact that there was now a bit of awkwardness between the two of them, but they tried to play it off.

"What are friends for?" Alice smiled at him. "Now Newton's third law of motion states that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction."

"Like if I punch a demon he is likely to come back and try and punch me." Roman asked, he was not very good at science.

"Not exactly." Alice said trying to sound as upbeat as possible. She on the other hand was very good at science. Being a technopath, which gave her the ability to manipulate technology, she had always been interested in the way technology worked. It was why she had become an engineer major in the first place. She had taken the same Physics class her sophomore year and since she had passed with flying colors she figured she would help Roman out. Of course she agreed to all this before the kiss but she couldn't very well go back on her promise now.

"I am never going to get this." Roman said defeated, slamming his textbook shut.

"You will, it jus takes some practice." Alice reassured him, placing a comforting hand over his.

Neither Roman nor Alice could explain the feeling of electricity that passed through them the moment their hands touched but before they knew it they were embracing each other.

"Wait." Roman pulled away. "What if Melinda comes home and finds us?" Roman wasn't found of the idea of his best friend walking in on him making out with their other best friend.

"She's sleeping at your brother's place tonight. She wont be back till tomorrow." Alice smiled and pulled Roman back into a passionate kiss.

* * *

Bianca and Chris stood outside of the Halliwell Manor. Family dinners were a regular occurrence and were always held at the Manor since Piper was the best cook and it had the most room out of all the houses.

Chris began to head for the door before turning around to see that Bianca was not following him.

"Come on they won't bite." Chris said extending his hand out for Bianca to take.

Bianca smiled and took Chris' hand and followed him inside the house.

As expected they were met by the usual Halliwell chaos.

Chris led Bianca passed the twins and Patty, who were too busy discussing something that happened at Magic School to car about his presence and other to where Henry and Prue were seated in the sun room, deep in conversation about something.

They both looked up when they saw Chris and Bianca enter.

"Hey cuz, nice of you to join us." Prue said with a smile "And this must be Bianca, we have heard so much about you."

Chris shot Prue a "shut up now or I will kill you stare", which instantly did the trick because Prue fell completely silent.

"Where are Melinda and Wyatt?" Chris asked noticing his sibling's absence.

"Off fighting somewhere." Henry told him casually as if it was something that happened often, which it was.

"About what?" Chris asked.

Henry merely glanced over at where Caleb was standing.

"Oh" Chris said in understanding. "He is still upset about that?"

"I don't know. I am trying to stay out of it. You know how they can be." Henry explained.

Chris just smiled and nodded. He knew better than anyone how Melinda and Wyatt could be when they fought. Usually it was Chris and Wyatt who fought but every now and then Melinda would fight with one of her brothers and it was never pretty.

"That's a shame, I so wanted to meet them" Bianca said, genuinely disappointed. She hadn't agreed to meet Chris' family just for the sake of it, she figured this would be the perfect opportunity to get to Melinda, all she had to do was find a way to get her alone and then she could shimmer her to Jonathan.

"I am sure they will be back soon, assuming they don't kill each other." Henry said, only half joking.

"Dinners ready guys." Phoebe said emerging from the kitchen. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Bianca.

"Aunt Phoebe, this is Bianca." Chris said pointing to Bianca who stood quietly next to him. "Bianca this is my Aunt Phoebe."

"Its nice to meet you." Bianca smiled, reaching her hand forward to shake Phoebe's.

"Hey guys, we are going to do this buffet style so if everyone will just grab a plate…" Piper began and she and Paige came out of the kitchen, they both stopped dead when they saw Bianca.

"Hey mom, aunt Paige, this is Bianca." Chris introduced her again.

"Bianca, how nice to meet you." Piper said, trying her best to sound genuine. "Will you excuse us for just one moment, I just remembered we are going to be eighteen tonight and not seventeen." Piper then turned her attention to her sisters. "Would you guys mind helping me find an extra chair, I think there are some up in the attic."

"Ya of course." Paige said, catching on to what Piper really meant. "We will be right back." And the three sisters hurried upstairs.

"Are they always so…?" Bianca said trying to find a polite way to put it once she was sure the sisters were out of earshot.

"Weird?" Henry said. "Yep."

* * *

The second Melinda and Caleb had arrived at the Manor for dinner Wyatt had stalked off to the other room. Melinda was getting sick of her brothers attitude to her relationship. Sure she was sleeping with his best friend and she had kept it from him for over three months even though everyone else knew, but it was time to get over it.

Melinda had excused herself from her family and went to follow Wyatt up to the attic.

"Why are you avoiding me?" Melinda asked as she entered the room.

"I am not avoiding you." Wyatt said defensively.

"Then why are you up here." Melinda said walking further into the room.

"It was too noisy down there." Wyatt lied.

"You left the second Caleb and I got here and you have been avoiding me ever since you found out about us." Melinda with a sigh "Are we ever going to talk about this?"

"There is nothing to talk about." Wyatt said like a stubborn child.

"Look I know you don't like the fact that Caleb and I are together but"

"It's not that." Wyatt cut her off.

"Than what?" Melinda asked, beginning to get frustrated with her older brother.

"I don't understand why you thought you had to keep it from me." Wyatt admitted.

Melinda slouched down on Aunt Pearl's couch. She couldn't believe she had missed this. So much for her new power helping her better understand what people were thinking. "I'm sorry" She said meekly.

"I don't care who you date Melinda. You are my sister, as long as you are happy I am happy." Wyatt said coming to sit down next to her on the couch.

"Well why didn't you just say so before instead of avoiding me for the last two weeks?"

"I don't know. I am a Halliwell, we are stubborn." Wyatt said with a smile. "I just don't want you to feel like you ever have to keep anything from me. I am your brother I will love you no matter what."

Melinda was at a loss for words, something that seemed to be happening to her a lot lately. She threw her arms around her brother, nuzzling her head against his chest and began to cry, the stress of everything finally getting to her.

"Linnie what's wrong?" Wyatt asked, concerned by the strange turn in their conversation.

"Nothing. I love you too Wy." Melinda said sitting back up and wiping away the tears that had fallen down her cheeks. "We better get back downstairs before everyone worries we have ripped each others heads off."

"You go on with out me. I am going to go look for another shirt." Wyatt said pointing to the place where Melinda's head had been moments before that was now wet with her tears.

"Sorry." She said and almost looked like she was going to cry again.

"Its fine" He reassured her. He did not know what was up with her. This was not like her to cry so freely. "I have some extras in my room. I will be right down."

She smiled at him before nodding and heading out of the attic.

* * *

Wyatt was down to his last shirt at his parents' house; he would have to bring a few clean ones over next time he came by. He slipped on the fresh shirt before heading for the door. He stopped however when he heard the voices' of his Mom and aunts coming from the other side.

"What the hell is she doing here?" He heard his aunt Paige say "Did you know about this Piper?"

"Why would I know anything about this?" Piper asked defensively.

"Well he is your son." Phoebe said as kindly she could muster for the current situation.

"I knew he was seeing someone but I didn't realize it was her." Piper said.

"He never told you her name?" Paige asked.

"He did but I thought it was just a coincidence." Piper said, knowing how stupid the comment sounded, even to her.

"When are you going to learn there are no such thing as coincidences in this family." Paige scolded.

"Well what are we going to do now? We can't exactly tell Chris we know who and what she is without telling him everything else." Phoebe said.

"No we can't say a word, to any of them. We have to act like we know nothing. We will just have to keep an eye on her. They have only been seeing each other for two weeks, maybe he will get bored of her and move on." Piper suggested.

"Unlikely." Paige scoffed.

"You know you are really not being helpful here." Piper said, annoyed with her sister.

"Well what would you like me to do Piper? Your son is downstairs right now with a woman who once tried to kill him." Paige said in a yelled hush.

"He didn't try to kill her, only strip his powers to bring him back to Wyatt. And besides none of that happened, at least not for them. Maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe now that Wyatt isn't evil neither is she" Phoebe suggested.

"I still say we keep an eye on her" Paige said.

"Fine." Piper said putting an end to the conversation. "Now lets go back downstairs before anyone gets too suspicious."

Paige and Phoebe nodded in agreement and followed Piper back down the stairs.

Wyatt couldn't believe what he had just heard. He assumed they had been talking about Chris' new girlfriend but how could they have met her before and what did they mean when they said, "now that Wyatt isn't evil neither is she"?

He couldn't be sure but he had a sneaking suspicion that this had something to do with what his past aunts and parents had said about changing the future. Either way he was more determined then ever to find out.

* * *

When Wyatt returned downstairs he found that everyone had already begun eating without him.

"Where have you been?" Gwen asked as he took his seat next to her at the dinning room table, which had been extended to fit everyone.

"Spilled some potion ingredients on my shirt, how to change." Wyatt lied. He didn't want to tell Gwen the truth that Melinda had cried on his other shirt, he also didn't feel like telling her what he had over heard his Mom and aunts saying.

"So Bianca, what do you do?" Leo asked, he too recognized Bianca but had promised Piper not to say a word.

"I work at Buckland Auction House." Bianca said.

Piper practically chocked on the piece of bread she was chewing. Phoebe, who was also shocked by the answer, accidentally spilled her glass of water and it landed right on Bianca who was sitting next to her.

"Oh gosh, I am so sorry." Phoebe said handing Bianca a napkin.

"It's fine don't worry about it." Bianca said as she tried to wipe herself try with a dinner napkin.

"If you want I think I have some extra clothes upstairs that might fit you." Melinda suggested as she got up from the table to lead Bianca up to her room.

"Thanks." Bianca said with a small. She could not have asked for a more perfect situation, alone with Melinda Halliwell.

Bianca followed Melinda into one of the bedrooms, which had been converted into small study.

Melinda rummages through the closet before finally pulling out a green top that looked to be about Bianca's size.

"Here you go" Melinda said handing the shirt to Bianca.

"Thanks" Bianca said taking the shirt and heading to the bathroom to change. She was glad to have a minute alone to think. She had to work quickly before anyone downstairs grew suspicious. All she had to do was grab the girl and shimmer out. Bianca only hoped she wouldn't be followed.

"It fits!" Melinda exclaimed when Bianca returned. "I knew you looked to be about my size. Should we head back down?"

"I don't think so" Bianca said, remorse in her voice as she advanced on the other girl. "I'm really sorry."

Bianca reached out her hand to grab the other girl but the second her skin touched Melinda's something strange happened.

She found herself being pulled into some sort of strange vision. She saw the small apartment she used to live in with her mother before her brother was born.

She was playing on the floor in her mothers bedroom while her mother read from the old tattered book she called the Grimiore when there was a knock on the door.

Her mother went to answer the door and standing on the other side were two women who Bianca recognized as a much younger Piper and Paige.

"Hi, how's it going?" Piper said cheerfully.

"Can I help you?" Bianca's mother asked.

"Hopefully" Piper said with a smile.

"Yeah, see, we just moved in from out of state and we wanted to get to know our neighbors." It was Paige who spoke this time.

"Oh, well, welcome. Where did you move from?" Bianca's mother asked.

"Phoenix" Piper said. Bianca could see her mother stiffen slightly.

"Really. Please, come in, come in." Bianca's mother said trying to be as friendly as possible.

"Thank you." Paige smiled and she and Piper entered the apartment.

"Wow, nice place." Piper exclaimed.

"Yea, real nice." Paige agrees.

"Thank you" Bianca's mother said, trying to sound sincere.

"Mommy, mommy, mommy." Young Bianca cried running into the room. "Can I play with…?"

"Bianca, sweetie, can you give mommy a minute, okay?" Bianca's mother said and pushed her back into her bedroom.

"Okay" young Bianca said reluctantly and headed back in the direction she had come from.

"Now what?" Paige said so only Piper could hear.

Bianca's mother had formed an energy ball in her hand and threw it at Piper and Paige; it missed them by mere inches.

Piper turned and blew the woman up.

"The kid." Piper exclaimed and headed to the bedroom.

Bianca's mother had already reformed and held Bianca in her arms "Hurry, Bianca" she said before shimmering out.

The vision ended and the apartment began to fade away and all that was left was blackness.

* * *

Bianca could hear faint voices off in the distance.

"I told you it was just like last time with Penny, I touched her and she just fainted." A female voice said.

"That's it? You just touched her and she fainted?" A male voice asked not sounding entirely convinced.

The female did not get a chance to answer because at that moment Bianca's eyes fluttered open. She saw that the voices she had heard belonged to Wyatt, Chris and Melinda who were all standing above her staring at her. She also saw that they had put a crystal cage around her. She was trapped.

"What the hell is going on up here?" It was Piper who had obviously been concerned when all three of her children had disappeared upstairs. She gasped when she saw Bianca trapped in a crystal cage.

"Chris' new girlfriend tried to attack Melinda." Wyatt told his mother as if this was something that happened on a regular basis, which in this family it was.

"You don't know that's what happened." Chris interjected. "Melinda just said she reached out to touch her."

"Ya but in a really creepy way." Melinda corrected.

"Enough" Piper yelled silencing her children. She then turned her attention on Bianca. "Who do you work for? You're a Phoenix aren't you? A hired gun? So who sent you?"

"If I tell you he will kill me." Bianca pleaded.

"If you don't tell us we will kill you." Piper spat.

"That's a bit harsh mom" Chris interrupted.

"Silence" Piper said turning to her youngest son. Chris knew when his mom meant business and this was not a time to argue with her.

"He has my brother." Bianca said. "Do what you want with me but if I tell you I have signed his death warrant as well."

"If you tell is who "he" is and what he wants maybe we will help you save your brother, ever think of that." Piper said turning her attention back to Bianca.

"You would do that?" Bianca said completely shocked. She had just tried to kidnap her daughter and now Piper was offering to help save Bianca's brother.

"Depends" Piper said. "On what you have to say."

Bianca thought about her options for a moment. There was no way she would escape this alive if she did not tell Piper what she wanted to hear. On the other hand if she betrayed Jonathan he was sure to kill her brother. But maybe the Halliwells could help her rescue him. After all if anyone could do it, it would be them.

"His name is Jonathan, he is a warlock." Bianca said.

"And what does he want?" Piper asked, obviously not satisfied with such a vague answer.

Bianca looked from Piper and then to Melinda "Her."

* * *

"She is obviously lying to save her own skin." Wyatt said, he and his siblings and mother had gathered outside Melinda's old bedroom to discuss what Bianca had just told them.

"Why would she lie about that?" Chris said trying to defend Bianca, even though she was evil he still really liked her.

"Hey what are you guys talking about?" It was Caleb, he had obviously come up the stairs to investigate what was taking them all so long.

"I am going to go down and send everyone home, will you guys be all right up here for a bit?" Piper asked and they all nodded, she then descended the stairs passed Caleb and back into the dinning room.

"So anyone going to fill me in on what's going on?" Caleb asked again.

"Chris' girlfriend tried to kidnap Melinda." Wyatt said, Chris merely glared at Wyatt.

"What?" Caleb said, panic present in his voice. "Are you okay?" He asked turning to Melinda.

"Ya I am fine, she fainted the second she touched me." Melinda explained, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. She didn't know how much longer she could keep Jonathan and the stone a secret.

"This has to do with that warlock doesn't it? I told you this would come back and bite you in the ass." Caleb practically yelled.

"Wait you knew about this?" Chris asked shocked, looking from Caleb to his sister.

"You have to tell them now Melinda." Caleb said with a defiant tone.

"Tell us what?" Wyatt asked, both him and Chris were now staring at Melinda, waiting for answers.

* * *

"What the hell is going on up there?" Paige asked as Piper entered the kitchen. Everyone had finished eating at this point and Paige was loading dishes into the dishwasher.

"You were right about Bianca." Piper said, none to pleased to have been wrong.

"What happened?" Paige asked, abandoning the dishes to go stand by Piper.

Piper filled her sister in on everything that had happened upstairs with the young Phoenix.

"You don't think this has anything to do with the warlock who kidnapped Parker, do you?" Paige asked, trying her best to keep her voice calm.

"Well now I do." Piper exclaimed, she hadn't even thought of it but now that Paige mentioned it, it would make sense. "We should send everyone but the older kids home, we may need their help."

"I'll go fill Phoebe in. You go back upstairs and make sure that bitch doesn't try anything." Paige said and walked out of the kitchen to go find Phoebe.

Piper sighed. Just once she would like to get through a family dinner without demons ruining it.

* * *

"Why did you wait so long to tell us this?" Wyatt yelled at his sister. He was getting really fed up with all of her lies.

Melinda had filled them in on the prophecy and Caleb told them about what he and Henry had overheard when they were in the underworld searching for Wyatt. Melinda still left out the part about her dream encounter with Jonathan and the stone, she was too scared Jonathan would do something rash if she disobeyed him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think it was that big of a deal." Melinda said trying to defend herself.

"There is a warlock after you that's kind of a big deal." Chris scolded.

"Well what are we going to do now?" Melinda asked.

"You" Wyatt said pointing a finger at sister, "are going to do nothing. We" he said making a gesture to himself Chris and Caleb "are going to track down this warlock and kill him."

Melinda pouted but she was in no position to argue at the moment. She didn't like the idea of her brothers and boyfriend going off to fight her battle but if she told them about the stone it would only make things worse.

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" Chris asked but he could already see the spark of an idea forming in his brother's head.

* * *

Melinda headed downstairs to find most of her family had already left. Her mom and dad were busy in the kitchen cleaning up and Prue and Henry sat on the couch deep in conversation, but other than that the house was empty.

"Hey" Prue said when she saw her cousin. "You okay?"

"Ya I am fine." Melinda reassured her though she wasn't so sure it was true. "What would a Halliwell family dinner be if a demon wasn't trying to kill or kidnap at least one of us?"

"Where are Chris, Wyatt and Caleb?" Henry asked.

"Upstairs dealing with Bianca, they sent me away." Melinda said, trying to hide the bitterness in her voice but failing miserably. "Would one of you mind taking me home, Caleb shimmered us here but I have a feeling he is going to be busy for a while."

"Sure. I should probably head home as well." Henry said getting up to stand by Melinda so he could orb them both to their respective apartments.

"I think I am gonna stay and see if the boys need any help." Prue said getting off the couch as well and heading for the stairs. "We will call you if we need anything." Melinda knew she had meant that last comment only for Henry. She wasn't going to be allowed to tag along if she was the one Jonathan was after.

Perhaps that's why it happened. She was merely thinking about how much she wished she could go somehow get to Jonathan before her brothers and Caleb and Prue when Henry began to orb them out of the Manor and the next thing she knew they were in the underworld.

"What the hell just happened?" Henry asked, completely confused at what they were doing down there.

"I have no idea." Melinda said shaking her head, and she wasn't lying though she had a sneaking suspicion this was somehow her fault.

"Well, well, well." Said a voice that sent chills down Melinda's spine. She was not all surprised when she turned around to see that the owner of the voice was Jonathan.

* * *

"You want me to take you to Jonathan?" Bianca asked. After sending Melinda away, with some reluctance, Caleb, Chris and Wyatt had gone back into the room where Bianca was to start working on a plan.

"You were going to take Melinda to him, you must have some idea where he is." Wyatt said, knowing he was right.

"And why should I help you? If Jonathan finds out I betrayed him he will kill me and my brother."

"Do you know where he is keeping your brother?" It was Chris who spoke; he couldn't help but feel bad for Bianca. Even though she had portrayed him, it was clear she only did it for her brother, something Chris knew he would do for Melinda or Wyatt in a heart beat.

Bianca just nodded. "I tried to rescue him once before but Jonathan caught me. He told me if I did what he said he would let him go. I am assuming he is still in the same place."

"Why exactly did Jonathan take your brother?" Wyatt asked, skeptical of the whole situation.

"Hey, what are you guys up to?" Prue interrupted as she entered Melinda's old bedroom.

"We were just coming up with a plan to rescue Bianca's brother." Chris told her.

"No, we were just deciding whether its worth it to risk our lives for someone who just tried to kidnap our sister and could very well be leading us into a trap." Wyatt corrected him rather harshly.

"I only did it to save my brother." Bianca interjected. "Jonathan has been killing of witched from my coven for months now."

A flash of realization crossed Chris' mind. "All the murder victims, they were witches weren't they."

Bianca nodded.

"But why?" Chris asked. He had, had a feeling that the case he had been working on a few weeks ago, the one that Bianca had been a witness in was supernatural, but it didn't make it any less of a shock to hear.

"I'm not sure." Bianca said, a sense of sadness in her voice.

"A likely story." Wyatt said, clearly not buying it. "If he was killing witches from your coven why did he take your brother, why not just kill him too?"

"Like I said I don't know."

"You're going to have to come up with a better lie than that if you expect to get our help." Wyatt snapped at her.

* * *

"Melinda we need to leave now." Henry said grabbing his cousin's arm but she yanked it away.

She was staring at Jonathan as if mesmerized by him. "They're coming for you." She said in a calm voice.

"Don't worry my pet, I am more then ready to take your family this time." Jonathan said with a smile.

"Melinda what are you doing." Henry yelled. Melinda had begun to walk away from her cousin and was now a mere few feet away from where Jonathan stood.

"If you hurt them, I wont help you." Melinda said, completely ignoring Henry.

"Melinda." Henry yelled as he ran to her. "Please let's go."

"Oh she is not going anywhere." Jonathan said and he flicked his wrist and Henry went flying across the cave. "Do you really think I am just going to run from your family because you tell me too?" Jonathan asked turning back to Melinda.

Melinda didn't answer, she just stood there at a loss for words.

Henry didn't know what else to do. It was clear he was not going to be able to just leave with Melinda. He needed back up but he couldn't call for them while he was in the underworld. He took one last look at Melinda before orbing out, leaving her alone with Jonathan.

Henry orbed into Melinda's old bedroom to find a screaming match taking place between Chris and Wyatt.

"We can't just go running off after this Warlock because your girlfriend's brother is in trouble. We need time to think this through and come up with a plan." Wyatt shouted.

"The plan is go down their kick some warlock ass and be done with this whole mess." Chris shouted back.

"Guys." Henry tried to yell over them but they didn't seem to hear him.

"And what if this is a trap, what if she is leading us straight to our deaths." Wyatt said, he couldn't believe how stupid his brother was being.

Henry couldn't take it anymore. Time was of the essence here. He brought his fingers to his lips and let out a loud whistle. Everyone stopped and stared at him. "Jonathan has Melinda."

"What?!" Chris, Wyatt, Caleb and Prue all yelled in unison

"Look there is no time to waste explaining. I think I can find the place again but we need to hurry."

"Maybe I can be of some assistance." Bianca said and they all turned to stare at her. "I know where his lair is, I can take you there."

"You would do that?" Chris asked, a small smile on his face.

"No, out of the question." Wyatt said, he was not about to take the woman who just tried to kidnap his sister to go rescue her.

"You two need to stop fighting. We are wasting time." Caleb said to them before turning his attention to Bianca. "Please, take us to her and we promise we will do everything we can for your brother."

"Fine" Wyatt consented and orbed the crystal cage around Bianca away "But I swear to god Chris if we die, I am going to kill you."

* * *

"Please, don't do this. I promised I would help you find the stone if you left my family alone." Melinda said, though it would have been more accurate to say that Jonathan had threatened to kill her family if she didn't help.

"And how is your search for the stone going?" Jonathan asked annoyed. "Because the solstice is just around the corner."

"I don't know why you think I can find it." Melinda pleaded.

"Use your power." Jonathan said grabbing Melinda's arm but before he had a chance to continue he was thrown across the room.

"Stay the fuck away from my sister." Wyatt yelled.

"No! Wyatt stop!" Melinda screamed.

Wyatt turned to look at her completely shocked. It gave Jonathan just enough time to escape.

"Shit" Wyatt cursed, seeing the warlock had got away. "We should go after him."

"No, Wyatt. Lets just go." Prue said. "This was all too easy. It could be a trap."

Wyatt looked like he might run after Jonathan for a second, but then thought better of it. "Fine. Caleb take Melinda. Lets get the hell out of here."

Chris grabbed Bianca's hand and they all orbed out of the underworld. Everyone except Caleb and Melinda. She was still standing in the same spot, staring off into space.

"Are you okay?" Caleb asked walking over to his girlfriend who stood so still that if it weren't for the rise and fall of her chest, he might have thought she was a statue.

"We need to talk"


End file.
